Spain and Germany make way for an anti-crisis pact in the European Union during Thursday’s summit talks on saving the economy after Coronavirus pandemic

THE European summit will be held by videoconference tomorrow and aims to clear the way to a pact on a massive and unprecedented injection of economic resources against an inevitable crisis. The agreement points to a historic expansion of the EU budget, from which would come the recovery fund proposed by Spain. The positive signs from Berlin towards this initiative encourage optimism in Brussels. However, no one rules out that the clash between the most extreme positions, represented by the Netherlands and Italy, could disrupt the summit or force new rounds of negotiations.

The positions of the European partners on the ambition of the necessary measures remain distant. But the latest movements of the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, and Spain’s President, Pedro Sánchez, have opened a possible area of ​​understanding on which a definitive agreement could be built.

Those sources hope that at least the political green light will come out of the European Council on Thursday so that the European Commission can launch the construction of a recovery fund that, if the most optimistic timetable is met, would be in operation at the beginning of 2021.

Merkel confirmed on Monday her willingness to seek a “solidarity” formula beyond the recent Eurogroup agreement. Berlin recognises that this emergency network is not enough to counteract the devastating economic impact of the pandemic.

The Spanish government also presented on Monday a proposal for a fund of €1.5 trillion that aims to reconcile the requests of France, in favour of issuing the so-called Coronabonos to share among all the debt linked to the crisis.

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Damon Mitchell

From the interviewed to the interviewer

As frontman of a rock band Damon used to court the British press, now he lives the quiet life in Spain and seeks to get to the heart of the community, scoring exclusive interviews with ex-pats about their successes and struggles during their new life in the sun.

Originally from Scotland but based on the coast for the last three years, Damon strives to bring the most heartfelt news stories from the spanish costas to the Euro Weekly News.

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