EU ministers seal virus rescue plan deal

BRUSSELS: EU finance ministers have finally struck a deal on a stimulus plan to deal with the economic fallout from Covid19.

They agreed yesterday on ¤500 billion ($NZ899 billion) support for their coronavirusbattered economies when, after weeks of wrangling, powerhouses Germany and France put their feet down to end opposition from the Netherlands over attaching economic conditions to emergency credit for governments weathering the impacts of the pandemic.

But the agreement does not mention joint debt issuance to finance recovery, something Italy, France and Spain pushed strongly for but that is a red line for Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Austria. It only defers to the bloc’s 27 national leaders whether ‘‘innovative financial instruments’’ should be used.

French Finance Minister Bruno

Le Maire said Europe had agreed the most important economic plan in its history.

Earlier, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte warned that the EU’s very existence would be under threat if it could not come together to combat the pandemic.

For weeks, EU member states have struggled to present a united front, squabbling over money, medical equipment and drugs, border restrictions and trade curbs, laying bare bitter divisions.

The package would bring the EU’s total fiscal response to the epidemic to ¤3.2 trillion, the biggest in the world. It includes access to cheap credit from the eurozone bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, more guarantees for the European Investment Bank to step up lending to companies and a scheme to subsidise wages so firms can cut working hours, not jobs. — AAP