• Coronavirus and the EU: League and Brothers of Italy against Conte, Forza Italia stands out on the Mes
  • Coronavirus, ok EU to Recovery Fund: "It is urgent and necessary". Disagreement remains over modalities
  • Coronavirus, Angela Merkel at the Bundestag: "European solidarity but eurobonds are not a suitable tool"

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24 April 2020 The European Council approved the measures decided by the Eurogroup which envisage the use of the Mes without conditionality; the funding of layoffs in member countries (Sure) and the strengthening of the EIB to help businesses. 

But above all the twenty-seven heads of government have given a mandate to the Commission to develop a fund for the recovery, focused on the 2021-2027 Community budget, which will allow the substantial use of the issue of common European securities, without however being able to configure as a eurobond. 

Conte does not veto the "Mes light" and is now pushing for the "Recovery fund" by the summer. The distance remains between those who, like Italy, Spain and France, ask for non-repayable transfers and those who, like Finland, Austria and Holland, believe that resources should be only loans to be repaid. To seek the "balance" between loans and grants, we will have to wait for the "second or third week of May", says the Commission President in a press conference with the President of the European Council Charles Michel. 

Many aspects of the 'Recovery fund' - from the amounts to the times, or to the methods of financing - remain uncertain and will be defined in the next month, but Berlin has already said it is ready for a strong increase in its financial contribution to the European budget. The chancellor also said that "fiscal policies in Europe must be standardized". It is a precise warning to Holland, a tax haven in the EU and an opponent up to the last of the "Recovery fund", and at the same time a signal to the southern countries that Europe has finally taken the road to make debt less burdensome of countries in difficulty. 

Von der Leyen stresses that "3.3 trillion euros" have been put in place by the EU, with various tools including the intervention of the EIB, the Mes, the Sure plan of the Commission to support employment: these three, it was decided today, they will be operational in June. Von der Leyen calls on countries to increase the availability of the budget: it must be doubled for at least the first 2-3 years, from 1.2 per cent EU GDP to 2 per cent, or from 1000 to 2000 billion euros.

Conte: "urgent and necessary tool"
Antonio Conte exults: "It was an important step in European history. All 27 countries have agreed to introduce an innovative tool, the Recovery Fund, to respond to this health, economic and social emergency. It would be a fund for the recovery with common European securities which will finance all the most affected countries, including Italy, but not only Italy ". "It is important because the principle that it is an urgent and absolutely necessary tool has also passed," Premier

Reactions in Italy concluded
 "A hole in the water", the premier "thief of the future". Giorgia Meloni and Matteo Salvini go to the attack by Giuseppe Conte. Giorgia Meloni does not spare stockpiled to the premier: "yet another hole in the water at European level. Perhaps after all he too is ashamed of it ", he observes referring to the declarations released after the EU Council. The FdI leader agrees with Matteo Salvini on what the real result of the European summit is:" While the Fund for recovery is declined to the future and with contours still to be defined, the only sure thing is that in a few days the Mes will be operational with its conditions that are anything but light. " 

Salvini replies the group leader dem in the Senate, Andrea Marcucci:" In Europe a historical result for Italy, it is no coincidence that Salvini already says it is a defeat. For him, most likely. "A 

hard line from which Forza Italia is partially separated, with Silvio Berlusconi reiterating his yes to the use of the Mes for health expenses, although specifying that it is in no way an external support executive. 

Matteo Renzi: "on Recovery Fund, the substance is that: Europeans beat sovranisti 4 to 0. Because the 4 arrows in the space of those who believe in and want to fight the crisis there. The sovereigns who said 'No Mes' return home with their hands in the bag, both Salvini and Meloni who made a ridiculous battle for me, and that part of the 5 Stars who made an unspeakable hand. "The leader of Italia Viva speaking in the evening on a TV broadcast.