Coronavirus: the Eurogroup facing the challenge of European unity

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The nineteen finance ministers of the euro zone meet this Tuesday afternoon by videoconference. Ministers from countries outside the euro area are also invited to this crucial meeting for the European Union. At their last virtual summit, the heads of state and government of the EU were unable to agree on the economic response to the pandemic and entrusted the task to the finance ministers. They had been given two weeks to find an answer that met the challenge.

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It is the finance ministers who will have to invent this answer in order to ensure that all the economies of the euro zone can restart simultaneously. We already have a fairly precise idea of ​​the architecture envisaged, reports our correspondent in Brussels, Pierre Benazet.

There is a three-legged building in the center that seems to be a consensus. First, the EIB, the European Investment Bank, to revive private activity; then the European Fund for Partial Unemployment, one hundred billion euros that the European Commission intends to raise on the markets to guarantee the retention of Europeans in employment. Finally comes the MES or European Stability Mechanism whose role will be to guarantee the debt of the States with an envelope estimated for the moment at 240 billion euros.

But to guarantee the recovery, France offers a solidarity fund with several hundred billion for state investments. The instrument is presented as exceptional and temporary to win the support of virtuous countries in terms of public finances who see it as a way of pooling the debt of southern European countries at their expense.

The discussions of the past few weeks have exacerbated the divide between the richer countries with healthier finances, and those of the South, accused of being lax and otherwise particularly affected by the virus. We remember the strong reaction of the Portuguese Prime Minister, António Costa, who had criticized the " recurring meanness " of the Dutch with regard to the management of the health crisis by southern Europeans.

The ministers' conclusions will then be submitted to the EU heads of state and government.

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• Coronavirus
• European Union
• Finance

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