Yahoo News EU could 'fail as a project' because of coronavirus pandemic, warns Italian PM
The EU could ‘fail as a project’ due to the coronavirus crisis, the Italian prime minister has warned.
In an interview with the BBC, Giuseppe Conte said the EU must act to help the countries worst hit by the pandemic in what he called “the biggest test since the Second World War”.
His comments come as European governments were unable to agree on measures to help the economy weather the outbreak, with finance officials clashing over aid conditions.
Conte told the BBC: “If we do not seize the opportunity to put new life into the European project, the risk of failure is real.”
According to figures from Johns Hopkins University, more than 17,600 people in Italy have died due to the virus and over 139,400 cases have been confirmed, with 26,491 recoveries.
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However, the death toll in Italy — which has been under national lockdown since 9 March — is showing signs of falling, with the infection rate also slowing.
Conte has defended his handling of the pandemic, which has been criticised by some for being too slow, saying he would do the same again.
He told the BBC: “For us to severely limit constitutional freedoms was a critical decision that we had to consider very carefully.
“If I had suggested a lockdown or limits on constitutional rights at the start, when there were the first clusters, people would have taken me for a madman.”
His comments come as European governments struggled to agree on how to tackle the economic challenges caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
A three-part package worth around a half a trillion euros (£440 billion) has been suggested – including up to 240 billion euros (£210 billion) in emergency loans from the eurozone’s standing bailout fund, credit guarantees from the European Investment Bank to keep companies afloat, and support for short-work schemes.
But Italy has rejected using the bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), which is usually used to bail out troubled countries and comes with usually comes with conditions to carry out economic reforms.
Italy, backed by France, Spain and six other countries, had pushed for the issue of so-called “corona bonds” backed by all countries to raise money at low interest rates and favourable conditions, effectively sharing debt that all EU nations would help to pay off.
