EU Commission apologizes to Italy

Brussels to allocate $109.62b to help hardest-hit countries safeguard jobs

BRUSSELS — The head of the European Commission apologized to Italy on Thursday for a lack of solidarity from Europe in tackling COVID-19 crisis but promised greater help in dealing with the economic fallout.

In a letter published in the Italian daily La Repubblica, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said too many EU countries had initially focused on their own problems.

“They did not realize that we can only defeat this pandemic together, as a union,” she wrote.

The main bone of contention is a request by Italy and eight other countries to issue “recovery bonds” on behalf of all eurozone countries to help fund efforts to rebuild national economies that are expected to dive deep into recession.

Von der Leyen said that the EU would allocate up to 100 billion euros ($109.62 billion) to the hardest-hit countries to help cover the cost of lost wages and to preserve jobs.

The COVID-19 pandemic is sweeping Europe, where over 500,000 people have been infected and more than 33,000 died by Thursday, according to the latest World Health Organization figures.

Italy, the most affected country, has reported a total of 115,242 cases and 13,915 deaths as of Thursday, while Spain’s death toll from the coronavirus also rose above 10,000.

The French government is racing to ensure it can produce or procure itself certain medications as stocks run low due to the outbreak, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Thursday.

Philippe told France’s TF1 TV that some molecules or drug components were in short supply, adding that the government had reached out to industrial groups for help.

France has reported 59,929 cases and 5,398 deaths as of Thursday.

Britain will build two more temporary hospitals, National Health Service said on Friday as its first field hospital prepares to open in London.

The NHS said it would build a 1,000-patient facility at a university in Bristol and a 500-bed facility at a conference center in Harrogate in the north of the country. The country has 34,173 cases as of Thursday and the death toll stood at 2,926.

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa announced on Thursday a 15-day extension of a state of emergency in order to fight the pandemic. The state of emergency, which was declared by the president on March 18 and would end on Thursday midnight, will be renewed until April 17 under the new endorsement.

In Russia, President Vladimir Putin delivered a national address on Thursday to announce the extension of a paid holiday period in Russia, until the end of April.

Putin said the peak of the novel coronavirus epidemic is yet to come, both globally and in Russia.

According to Putin, the combination of isolation regimes and holidays will allow Russia “to buy time for proactive measures”. As of Friday, Russia reported 4,149 infected cases.