- Every Friday, 20 Minutes offers a personality to comment on a social phenomenon, in their "20 Minutes with ..." meeting.
- Former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta had called for the solidarity of EU member states in the face of the migration crisis. He finds that the pattern is repeated today.
- "Faced with the coronavirus, Italy once again had the impression of benefiting from the empathy of its neighbors, but without concrete intervention to meet the challenge," points out the leader of the center-left.
A few years ago, he was the one who, at the head of Italy, called on the EU and member states to show solidarity in the face of the migration crisis which was putting his country to the test. Enrico Letta notes today that the coronavirus crisis once again highlights the lack of unity among the 27. "Italy once again felt that it benefited from the empathy of its neighbors, but without concrete intervention up to the challenge, ”underlines the man who is now president of the Jacques Delors Institute, a pro-European think tank , and a teacher at Sciences Po Paris.
And four years after the Brexit vote, the former center-left Italian Prime Minister (2013-2014) fears that the new health crisis hitting his country will again come to damage European unity. "It's a very serious risk," he points out. Enrico Letta, favorable to a European revival via “corona bonds”, agreed to answer the questions of 20 Minutes.
Since the start of the crisis, the head of the Italian government, Giuseppe Conte, has repeatedly asked EU member states to show solidarity with Italy. Why ?
To begin, we must understand the collective psychology of the country today, and go back to the two previous crises: the financial crisis of 2008 and that of the reception of refugees in 2014 and 2015. On two completely different subjects, Italy had the perception of being left on the front line, without help from its European partners. During the financial crisis, the responses did indeed arrive very late [with the establishment of the European Stability Mechanism in 2012]. And faced with the arrival of migrants, aid never arrived.
Faced with the coronavirus, Italy once again felt that it benefited from the empathy of its neighbors, but without concrete intervention to meet the challenge. Certain symbolic events have had a particularly negative impact. For example, at the height of the crisis, several thousand masks purchased by Italy and in transit through Germany were blocked by the latter on its territory. At the same time, planes arrived from China with equipment and doctors. So it was very easy to think: "The Europeans are abandoning us, the Chinese are helping us. "
We even had the impression that some people in Europe thought that the virus was affecting Italy or Spain because they are two countries in the South. Dutch Prime Minister [Mark Rutte] and his Minister of Finance made unacceptable comments, suggesting that the Covid-19 was hitting Italy because it was in debt. However, today, I note that New York is hit the hardest…
On what specific points does Italy need support?
The central point in this crisis concerns the response to the economic disaster in Europe. Will this answer be common to the member states of the European Union, or will they do everything for themselves? On this point, there is a difference between the position of Italy, Spain and France, who think that recovery is a European subject, and that of the Netherlands or Germany, who believe that this is a national issue.
For me, recovery is obviously a European subject. I will take an example. Mercedes leaders often ask German politicians not to give up on Italy. And for good reason: a third of each vehicle is produced by Italian industries. Mercedes, a typically German brand, is also a bit Italian and therefore European. Our economies are highly integrated, to the point where the fall of one or two of these economies would cause all the others.
You are in favor of "coronabonds", that is to say a European revival financed by a debt common to the countries of the EU. Tonight, the finance ministers of the euro zone did not settle this question, but they validated a European recovery plan of more than 500 billion euros…
The health crisis we are experiencing is going to have an unprecedented impact on the European economy. The Banque de France, for example, estimated on Wednesday that French GDP fell by 6% in the first quarter of 2020. This is at the level recorded in wartime, there is nothing comparable. The answers must therefore be at the level of this challenge. After months of sharp slowdown, the economy will not recover automatically.
Aid from the ECB will not go directly to companies in difficulty. The recovery must go through the liquidity granted to companies, through efforts on the cost of labor or even on medium-term taxation. These are essential subjects which affect the real economy.
The European finance ministers could have torn themselves apart, they made responsibility prevail. It is an important agreement. The first part of a match to be completed by the heads of state and government. The ministers did a good job and I believe that everything is linked to the solidity of the agreement between France, Italy and Spain, an agreement which held to the end and forced the Dutch and the Germans to seek and find a compromise. But above all, this agreement must be quickly put into practice because the recession will be the heaviest of the post-war period in Europe.
Four years after the Brexit vote and after the crises you mentioned, could the coronavirus crisis endanger European unity?
It is a very serious risk, to the point that Jacques Delors, former President of the European Commission, spoke a few days ago, after five years of media silence, to warn against the "mortal danger" that the lack of solidarity makes the EU run.
Europe is solidarity, Europe is union. This crisis will change the European Union, anyway, as it did in 2008. I hope that this crisis will bring it more unity and not more divisions. For my part, I am in favor of an increased role for the European Commission under the democratic control of the European Parliament.
Precisely, we talked about the mobilization of the EU states. How do you judge the action of the European institutions since the outbreak of the crisis, in particular the European Commission?
It has done more in four weeks than the Business Commission in 2008 in four years! Suspension of the stability rules, evolution of the rules of the internal market on sanitary equipment, the proposal on short-time working…: Ursula von der Leyen's team made very active and concrete choices, despite some blunders in communication from the president herself who were highlighted in Italy.
Our “20 Minutes with” interviews
A few months ago, an Italian series broadcast on Arte in France, "Il Miracolo", followed an Italian Prime Minister faced with a referendum on Italexit. Is such a situation more plausible today? What is the state of Italian public opinion vis-à-vis the EU?
Public opinion is detaching itself from the European Union, that is quite clear. The past few weeks have been terrible from this point of view. But I still think that the intelligence of my fellow citizens, including also the interest of being in the EU, will prevent the idea of an exit from the EU or the euro from making its way in the opinion. Moreover, a crisis like the Covid-19 would have reached Italy even if the latter had not been a member of the EU or the euro. But it would not then have benefited from the protection of the European Central Bank, for example! In short, Italy would have gone bankrupt immediately.
However, I think that the best news linked to this crisis is the agreement found between France and Italy, which is an essential element of the European engine. All major choices recently made within the European Union have been made with an agreement between France and Italy. I am thinking in particular of the budgetary guidelines taken when Mario Draghi was appointed head of the ECB in 2011.
World
Coronavirus: EU boss apologizes to Italy
Society
Coronavirus: No, this 2015 Italian television news does not prove that the Covid-19 was created in the laboratory
- EU
- 20 Minutes with
- Covid 19
- Economy
- Coronavirus
- Italy