Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and his Italian counterpart, Giuseppe Conte, on Thursday, issued urgent warnings that the European Union is in danger of disintegrating in the face of the coronavirus crisis.
“The EU is in danger if there is no solidarity,’’ Sanchez told parliament on Thursday.
The economic impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic poses a challenge to the existence to Europe unless national leaders find a “strong and unified response,’’ Conte also said.
Conte told the BBC that the pandemic had started as a health emergency but quickly turned into an economic and social emergency.
“It’s testing the economic structure of Italy and other countries in the world,’’ he said.
“`That’s why we need economic and social responses at the European level.’’
“It’s a big challenge to the existence of Europe and to the history of Europe,’’ Conte said.
“Myself and other European leaders need to rise to the challenge’’.
“And there’s no doubt that if our response isn’t strong and unified, if Europe fails to come up with a monetary and financial policy adequate to the biggest challenge since the Second World War, for sure not only Italians but European citizens will be deeply disappointed.’’
Spain and Italy are among the countries calling for common debt insurance, widely referred to as coronabonds, to tackle the economic fall-out from the coronavirus pandemic.
Germany and other countries have so far rejected the proposal.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has reiterated her rejection of coronabonds on Thursday, telling a video conference for members of her conservative bloc that there was no political consensus for issuing coronabonds, a person who participated in the call told dpa.
EU finance ministers failed to strike a deal on a coronavirus-related fiscal package on Wednesday, with talks due to resume later this week.
Conte has argued that eurobonds are needed to put together a much bigger stimulus package, so that Europe can compete with the sums pledged by the U.S. and China.
Italy and Spain are also the countries, worst affected by the coronavirus in Europe.
Conte defended Italy’s initial response to the pandemic, saying people would have taken him for a madman if he had tried to impose a Chinese-style lockdown earlier.
