Germany’s economics minister, Almatier, expects Eurogroup finance ministers to reach a deal. More comments from him follows:
I do not see any harm to Germany from resorting to corona bonds.
Germany’s priority is to protect the stability of the euro area.
This comes at a time when discussions continue between EU countries regarding corona bonds to face risks of the coronavirus pandemic spreading to the European economy.
The big issue yesterday was that the draft agreement pushed by the rest of the bloc referred to an "innovative financial instrument," but Italy rejected that by saying it wanted an explicit reference to approval of corona bonds.
At the same time, Italy is also demanding that there are no conditions for *ESM loans, but the Netherlands has insisted that no such option be allowed, that is, they want a “phased conditionality.”
