There's lots of false shadow boxing going on re last night's Eurogroup. To be clear

1) Italy will never accept an ESM program, even if conditionality is light; this will only happen as a last resort, and in extremis;

2) Dutch were never softening; despite reports to contrary

3) German position is (obvs) more imp & hasn't moved where *it counts* (CDU, Chancellery, Fin Min);

4) Even if there's process put in place to explore Coronabonds, bulk of action for MT economic recovery will come from re-purposed/re-designed EU budget

And so it's always been