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06 April 2020 On the eve of the day of important decisions, there are possible compromise points within the Eurogroup called tomorrow to decide on the common European response to the coronavirus crisis. Compromises that currently see the use of coronabonds invoked in recent weeks by Italy but also by Spain and France very unlikely.

Gentiloni; "We need a common tool now"
To the Eurogroup "we are converging on some measures but we must be clear that a common budgetary instrument is necessary if we want to avoid an asymmetrical impact of the crisis": said Commissioner for Economic Affairs Paolo Gentiloni. "It is crucial for me to build the awareness that this" strong budget stimulus "should have national but also European contributions", and "this common instrument must be put in place soon, not in two years", as it was for the Marshall plan.


On the Mes, the EU Commission believes that "if we reach a good agreement on conditionality, and there is good progress, it is one of the tools we should use," said Gentiloni. "The Mes has saved individual countries to date, and it is not what we need now. What is needed now is a common tool to deal with what is obviously a crisis affecting all EU countries and therefore the whole mechanism of conditionalities needs to be reviewed, "said Gentiloni. "We are trying to use this tool completely differently from the past crisis," he concluded.

Scholz: "Possible agreement on Mes without conditions"
The German Finance Minister, Olaf Scholz, said he was convinced that the Eurogroup could reach "a common position" on the use of the Mes without conditionality in support of the countries most affected by the coronavirus, starting from Italy and Spain. The amount of the loans, he explained, could reach 2% of the GDP and the financing would be granted without any conditions and without controls neither of the European "commissioners" nor of the "troika", with the sole objective of supporting the fight against the pandemic and "stabilizing the economy". Scholz underlined that the intervention of Bei and the new Sure program of the commission would be added to the Mes. All of this, he added, would allow one to put aside "the big discussions" about other tools such as coronabonds and to inject "direct aids that work immediately".

Commission spokesman: "We don't have a position yet"
"There is still no Commission position on this matter." So the head spokesman of the European Commission Eric Mamer replied, during the online briefing with the press, on the proposal launched by the Italian and French commissioners, Paolo Gentiloni and Thierry Breton, in favor of creating an ad hoc European fund capable of issuing securities common debt, to help Member States deal with the Covid-19 pandemic crisis. "There are two distinct paths - continues Mamer - on one side the Eurogroup is preparing a number of proposals and on the other the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, have received the mandate from the last European Council to prepare a recovery plan ". "For the moment, what the Commission is on the table is the Sure proposal, presented by President Ursula von der Leyen last week and is the only Commission proposal for the moment," continues Mamer.