• Coronavirus, von der Leyen: "11 billion of unused EU funds to Italy"
  • Coronavirus, von der Leyen: "11 billion of unused EU funds and maximum flexibility in Italy"
  • Coronavirus, Sassoli: European solidarity shows its power
  • Lombardy exhausted by the advance of the coronavirus. Fontana calls Conte: Now extraordinary measures

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March 19, 2020 Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has asked the EU to use "all the firepower" of the € 500 billion bailout fund to deal with the continent's economic crisis. Not only for Italy, but for all countries affected by the coronavirus. "Monetary policy alone - explains in an interview with the Financial Times - cannot solve all the problems. We must do the same on the budget front and, as I said, timing is essential. The way forward is to open the ESM credit lines to all member states to help them combat the consequences of the covid-19 epidemic. "

von der Leyen: "11 billion of unused EU funds to Italy"
We have an investment initiative. Because there are unused structural funds. Italy should have given them back to us: we decided instead to leave them, to spend them where they will be most useful. For example on the job market. They are eleven billion ". So the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on the microphones of Tg1. Maximum flexibility for Italy" We must grant new loans with an increase in public debt. The Stability Pact will grant maximum flexibility to Italy ", von von Leyen announced, adding that there will also be" maximum flexibility on state aid "." It is important - he explained - why so Italy can invest in health, tourism, transport, for the benefit of SMEs ".

Dombrovskis: "The tools are there, we will use them all"
"The tools are there and we will use them all," says euro manager Valdis Dombrovskis, reassuring those who fear that the EU will grope in the dark. But the president of the Eurogroup Centeno admits that other ways are being explored besides the existing ones, "to strengthen the response", because not everyone agrees that what is available is sufficient: a phrase that read in light of the Italian premier's request, it seems to prefigure the hypothesis of using the MES.

The knot of the ESM
The use of the ESM, however, has a 'political' limit: if a state asks for its help, it would come under strict conditions. So far it has been about structural reforms and forced fiscal consolidation, as for Greece. However, work could be done to make its use more acceptable. For example, conditionality could be linked to interventions for the health system or for emergencies related to the epidemic crisis. And the 'parachute' could open for several states or even for all, so as to avoid stigma of those who use it.

Coronabond? Germany is holding back
The debate on the MES, however, has not even officially started yet. There are many doubts, and there are many doubts about the idea launched by France, Italy and Portugal to create the 'crown bonds', which would give rise to the Eurobonds to which Germany has so far always opposed. Merkel is in fact the coldest on the idea, aware that pooling the debts would not have the ok of the Bundestag.

Next week the decisions
EU reflection continues in the coming days, in view of the Eurogroup and a new EU summit next week. On that occasion, the Commission should propose to activate the stability pact safeguard clause, which will suspend the budgetary adjustments. But even on this point the positions are not uniform, because there are those who would like to activate it immediately and those who want to make another discussion in Ecofin before the go-ahead.