• Agreement reached to the Eurogroup, ok Mes for health expenses
  • Michel: a 'De Gasperi Plan' for the post-Coronavirus European recovery
  • EU, von der Leyen: "Coronavirus demonstrates the failure of nationalists"
  • Conte: "The EU prevails if it is united, achieving solidarity response"
  • Mes, Centeno: agreement on all details awaited in the Eurogroup

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09 May 2020 The Eurogroup has reached a definitive agreement on the Mes. "Agreement reached to the Eurogroup on a 240 billion euro credit line for the States that wish to meet the financing needs linked to Covid", announced the French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on Twitter, highlighting that the Mes line "will be operational from June 1st". that the Mes line "will be operational from June 1st". 

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Conte continues to focus on the Recovery Fund and reiterates: funding must be available by 2020 and with a long-term maturity. On the Recovery Fund "we await the proposal that the European Commission will put on the table in a few days. Probably the funds will be fully operational and managed within the European budget, but the Italian position is clear: the program must be ambitious in terms of resources raised on the markets, it must primarily finance the sectors and countries most affected by the pandemic, it must provide for the early availability of part of the funds compared to January 2021. On these aspects, the Italian position coincides with that of many other Member States ". Giuseppe Conte explains it in an interview with Euractiv. "Funding must be made in the long term to allow the weight of the exceptional but temporary tax effort now borne by the Member States to be distributed over time; resources must be given primarily to the worst affected states and must provide a very significant share of" grants " , although they do not want to exclude loans; States will have the task of allocating them within a clear framework of common rules, "adds the

agreement to the Eurogroup, however, splitting the majority of government. With the Democratic Party in favor of its use and the Cinquestelle against. For Lega and brothers from Italy the agreement on the Mes is a new defeat. 

Berlusconi: agreement is excellent news for Italy
"The agreement reached within the Eurogroup on the Mes unconditionally is excellent news for Italy. Europe this time proves to be there and to be ready to give a concrete hand to the countries in difficulty ". So the leader of Forza Italia, Silvio Berlusconi. "We had worked for this, within the EPP and with European leaders, because we are convinced that only a strong, decisive intervention by the European Union can give us the tools to get out of this dramatic crisis. The Mes is one of these tools and adds to those already launched, the Sure fund, the EIB interventions and the Recovery Fund which has become the Recovery Initiative which will be defined in the coming weeks and which will have to include an important portion of non-refundable contributions. In addition of course to the ECB with its fundamental function warranty ", he adds with Berlusconi defines the mes an important tool for Italy.