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Last last night we got a preliminary deal among EU finance ministers, on a rescue package for the bloc's economies. It's headline figure is "half a trillion euros"- our story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/09/world/europe/coronavirus-european-union-bailout.html #thread
Colleagues at the FT, Bloomberg are good sources for the nitty gritty. You can also read the statement, which EU leaders are due to approve & elaborate on next week, here (warning: jargon & obfuscation in the wording) https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2020/04/09/report-on-the-comprehensive-economic-policy-response-to-the-covid-19-pandemic/
My take is that this is a conservative package, and that seen as a compromise between the 2 extremes of Italy & the Netherlands, this result is tilted in favor of the Netherlands end of that spectrum. While wording helps spin, spin won't last because reality is on its way fast.
The reason is *not* the failure to seriously examine prospects of a corona fund & subsequent bond issuance [this, buried at the bottom of the statement under silly expressions like "innovative financial instruments" is dead in the water]. We knew coronabonds were farfetched.
The reason, rather is the limitation of the ESM credit line -restricted per NL demands to health expenditure. Together w modalities (awful word) = ESM loans will not be taken up by Italy. Thanks to @Mij_Europe who flags a debt sustainability analysis is hiding between the words.
