(27 March 2020) – EU leaders on Thursday continued to disagree over the economic response to the coronavirus as Northern countries rejected the idea of issuing joint debt, known as “coronabonds”, proposed by nine member states to finance the recovery.
During a virtual summit held by video conference, the 27 heads of states and government were forced to water down the wording of the text on the European economic response to the coronavirus, after Italy threatened to reject the draft conclusions because of the strings attached to the EU’s financial assistance.
Despite some early signals of openness to discuss “coronabonds”, Germany and The Netherlands made clear they would not accept joint debt instruments.
In the end, the European Council passed the hot potato to the Eurogroup of finance ministers, who will once again try to propose solutions to the economic fallout from the coronavirus within the next two weeks. (EurActiv)