France on the one hand agrees with Italy on the creation of a new fund to dedicate for the economic emergency from Covid-19, on the other with Germany it is already working to use the resources of the Mes, the Salva Fund States, with lighter return conditions. The same light conditions that the Italian Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte he had evoked during a live broadcast on unified networks. Conte had also specified that the use of a light version of the Mes could only be considered as one of the measures to be implemented. Italy, in fact, continues to ask for the issuance of common debt securities to cope with the emergency, the so-called “crown bonds”.
According to the German press agency Dpa, the Franco-German proposals provide for the possibility for States to resort to an ESM credit line of up to 2% of their GDP (for Italy it would be around 36 billion euros), the intervention of the EIB to guarantee up to 80% of short-term bank loans and recourse to the EU budget with resources to be allocated to measures against unemployment.
The Minister of Economy, Roberto Gualtieri is laconic on the subject: "For Rome it is not enough. Well SURE and Bei guarantees, but the EU response must include common bonds".
In a press note the minister Gualtieri it's clearer: "The economic challenge posed by the coronavirus is unprecedented and requires a real quantum leap in Europe's response. This is why Italy is waging tough battles on all negotiating tables. Only a few weeks ago there was only the ESM with conditionality. We have achieved that on the negotiating table new and adequate instruments are proposed to the challenge we face. The set of proposals that the Eurogroup will present to the European Council now includes the SURE scheme unemployment insurance - requested for years by our country - a significant increase in the capital of the EIB to set up a fund for corporate loan guarantees and a reconstruction fund to be financed with common European bonds".
Gualtieri then specifies: "Italy reiterated, finding the agreement of other countries including France, that we cannot respond to a common and symmetrical shock with asymmetrical fiscal policies that would widen the gaps between countries. Therefore the common European response will only be adequate whether it will include the joint issuance of European bonds to finance national coronavirus response plans".
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As for the Mes, the minister continues, "for Italy it is an unsuitable tool to manage this crisis in its current form. As the Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte said, only an ESM without conditionality that preserves only the name of the old mechanism, becoming a fund for the fight against the pandemic, could be adequate to contribute, together with the other instruments, to an answer up to the challenge that must be centered on new solutions".