BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union finance ministers agreed on Thursday on half-a-trillion euros worth of support for their coronavirus-battered economies but left open the question of how to finance recovery in the bloc headed for a steep recession.
A man wearing a face mask walks past the European Commission headquarters as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in Brussels, Belgium April 9, 2020. REUTERS/Yves Herman
The agreement was reached after EU powerhouse Germany, as well as France, put their feet down to end opposition from the Netherlands over attaching economic conditions to emergency credit for governments weathering the impacts of the pandemic, and offered Italy assurances that the bloc would show solidarity.
But the deal does not mention using joint debt to finance recovery – something Italy, France and Spain pushed strongly for but which is a red line for Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Austria.
It only defers to the bloc’s 27 national leaders whether “innovative financial instruments” should be applied, meaning many more fraught discussions on the matter were still ahead.
“Europe has shown that it can rise to the oc