Italy Prime Minister adopts a tough stance ahead of EU talks

Rome, April 21

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Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Tuesday that he would accept “no compromises” at a videoconference of EU leaders this week aimed at addressing the economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.

Conte told an Italian parliament session that he would not sign up to a “bargain deal” at Thursday’s conference. “The EU and the eurozone cannot afford to repeat the same mistakes they made in the 2008 financial crisis, when it not possible to offer a joint response,” he said.

“Either we all win, or we all lose.”Conte’s push for the issuance of mutualised EU debt — dubbed coronabonds — has run into opposition from countries such as Germany and the Netherlands. EU finance ministers have agreed an initial rescue package worth about 500 billion euros ($545 billion) but pushed back any decision on joint debt earlier this month.

Up to 240 billion euros of the rescue are being made available through the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) — a bailout fund whose use is usually accompanied by EU oversight and conditions.

The ESM is politically toxic in Italy and Conte has said he was unconvinced that the conditions will be less stringent this time.

But he said Tuesday that he did not wan to oppose the ESM outright because other hard-hit countries such as Spain — another supporter of the coronabonds — were in favour of its use.

Italy’s official COVID-19 toll of 24,114 is the highest in Europe and second globally after the United States. — AFP

New stimulus package

The Italian government is also working on a new stimulus package worth at least ^50 billion to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus crisis, PM Giuseppe Conte (pic) said. The measures will be unveiled before the end of the month, Conte told the upper house Senate. The ruling coalition approved last month an initial ^25 billion package to help the economy cope with the outbreak.