In Italy, the “Cure Italy” Decree was issued with unprecedented speed and with an initial allocation of 25 billion Euros to strengthen the NHS and to support families, workers, and businesses. To stem the economic crisis, the government continues its work on the next decree, which will provide at least another 30 billion Euros to support the real economy. However, on their own, the individual countries are unable to cope with an emergency of the proportions we are facing.

Following the green light to suspend the Stability Pact, Europe is unable to find a common course of action to help governments. Furthermore, in light of the “unprecedented nature of the shock” caused by the Coronavirus, the Eurogroup still has about ten days to present new proposals.
Because of the necessary guarantees, the issue of Eurobonds - already dubbed “Coronabonds” - is among the most controversial options, but these are exceptional measures for exceptional times and, as Prime Minister Conte said, “Europe must prove that it is up to this historic call. It is a symmetric shock that affects all Member States, no one is exempt”.

Another hypothesis on the table regards the use of funding from the ESM (European Stability Mechanism) to provide precautionary credit lines to countries in difficulty and to allow the eventual implementation of the so-called anti-spread shield, the OMT (Outright Monetary Transactions) program.

The webinar will be an opportunity to shed light on the adopted measures and to explore the various proposals under discussion with economist Veronica De Romanis.