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20 May 2020 "The French and German proposal for a € 500 billion Coronavirus Recovery fund represents a courageous and significant step towards a common European Union response to the pandemic that devastated the continent. But it is also only this: a step. If we want to overcome this crisis together, as a union of common interests and values, much more needs to be done ".

This is what the Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, writes in a speech published on Politico.eu. "Some EU countries continue to put pressure on a business-as-usual budget and a modest recovery fund, with a negligible percentage of grants. I firmly believe that their position reflects the inability to understand the historical challenges we face" , underlines Conte in another passage.

"If we allow the coronavirus crisis to increase the economic and social divergences of the EU, not only will we not achieve the key objectives set out in documents such as the Commission's Green Deal and the Council's strategic agenda; we will also feed the flames of nationalism and widen the long-term divisions in our union ", observes Conte again.

"I encourage the EU Commission and its president, Ursula von der Leyen, to present in the coming days an ambitious proposal for the Recovery fund and for the next Multiannual Financial Framework, in line with the needs and expectations of European citizens", urges the President of the Council in his speech published on the European information site.

"This is the only way - adds Conte - to support the main political objectives that we have all agreed on, for a greener, competitive, digital and inclusive EU, an ambition reconfirmed by the EU Parliament in a resolution adopted on May 15th" .