EU, von der Leyen: "Coronavirus demonstrates the failure of nationalists"

• EU Court: only we competent to decide whether acts contrary to Union law
• Von der Leyen: EU apologizes to Italy and our budget will be the guide for recovery

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"As we are seeing, nationalist governments around the world have no answers to give in a pandemic that knows no borders, religions or skin color. At the beginning of the crisis, some member states of the European Union experienced the instinct to close in on themselves 'themselves and taking measures in isolation. But in the end all this was not effective and created problems. " Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said this in an interview with L'Osservatore Romano.

"Governments quickly remembered that we can only protect our citizens if we work together, if we help each other and share," he explains. "Together, in the European Union we have adopted hundreds of measures to ensure that hospitals in Italy or Spain could have the equipment they needed, that essential goods such as medicines or foodstuffs arrived in pharmacies or shops quickly, that workers in border areas could cross the border to reach their jobs and that people would keep their jobs. Acting concretely to protect people's health and jobs: this is what we must continue to do. "

In the face of the economic crisis affecting the continent, von der Leyen underlines, "we will do everything possible to maintain people's jobs and to support companies threatened by the collapse of economic activity. We have already adopted many support measures. We have modified state aid rules to allow governments to help companies that are in trouble because of the crisis. "

In addition, "we are making full use of our budgetary rules to allow governments to tackle the crisis. The European Union has so far mobilized more than three trillion euros to support people, businesses and the economy in our states. It is the most impressive economic response in the world, just to give you a tangible example: the European Union will help people keep their jobs by supporting part-time work. We are making available one hundred billion Euros for this model, similar to layoffs. Now we have to agree on a recovery plan, built on a solid European budget, which will allow our economies to recover. I am sure that all the governments of the European Union understand the extent of the challenge and that we will be up to it. of the task. "