• Conte: historic challenge for Europe, common debt instrument needed
  • Coronabond. Clash between von der Leyen and Conte then controversy falls
  • EU, no agreement on Coronabonds. Sassoli: "Enough myopia and selfishness of some governments"

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March 31, 2020

"Merkel and I expressed two different views during our discussion. I take advantage of it and say it to all German citizens: we are not writing a page in an economics manual, we are writing a page in a history book." So the premier Giuseppe Conte in an interview aired tonight on the German TV Ard.

Either the EU is cohesive or it will not be competitive in the world
"It is an emergency for which no single country is responsible, it is not about financial tensions. How does the EU respond? The EU competes with China, with the United States which has allocated 2 trillion to react, in the EU What do we want to do? Each Member State wants to go on its own? If the reaction is not cohesive, vigorous, coordinated, Europe will become less and less competitive in the global market space ", underlines Conte in a passage of the interview.

Coronabond? Germany does not pay Italy's debt
The Coronabonds? "I would like to remind you that this mechanism, euro bonds, does not mean that German citizens will have to pay even one euro of Italian debt. It only means that we will act together to obtain better economic conditions, which everyone benefits from," said the premier. "Even if the number of infected people is decreasing, we must not thwart the efforts made so far."

For Conte "at the moment we are fighting a battle against a common and invisible enemy. All countries are affected, all are on the front line. If an outpost withdraws, the invisible enemy inside can spread and all efforts would be in vain" . On coronabonds, Conte continues: "We must explain to our citizens that we do not have financial problems in individual countries. This is an emergency that affects everyone, for which no single country is responsible". The premier concludes: "Europe must demonstrate that it can find an appropriate answer, I speak of Europe as Robert Schumann, Konrad Adenauer and Alcide de Gasperi intended".