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EU Commission Head Apologizes to Italy, Pledges €100 bn Covid-19 Relief Fund

EU Commission Head Apologizes to Italy, Pledges €100 bn Covid-19 Relief Fund
folder_openEurope... access_time3 years ago
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By Staff, Agencies

EU Commission Chief, Ursula von der Leyen, apologized to Italy for the bloc’s sloppy coronavirus response, pledging €100 billion to help one of the worst-hit nations.

The help, however, might never arrive, as mutualizing debt is opposed by EU fat cats.

“Today Europe is mobilizing alongside Italy. Unfortunately, this has not always been the case,” she said in a letter published by Italy's La Repubblica newspaper on Thursday.

After apologizing for the inaction, however, the EU Commission chief proceeded to praising the ‘help’ provided to Italy by the bloc’s members. “In the past month, the European Commission has left no stone unturned to help Italy,” she insisted.

The apology left Italian politicians unimpressed, as they urged the EU not only to talk, but to prove it is actually a union. Apparently, Rome did not notice the ‘help’ von der Leyen bragged about.

“I believe that everyone will eventually realize even in those countries that a shared, orderly, strong and rapid European response is the only solution,” Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told the Spanish television La Sexta. “A slow response would be a useless response.”

A similar response came from Matteo Salvini, head of the opposition League, Italy’s most popular political party. He took to Twitter to mock the apology from the EU bigwig.

Later in the day, Von der Leyen apparently tried to add some actual substance to the apology, rolling out an idea of a new financial package to subsidize the salaries at companies struggling with the coronavirus fallout. The scheme, dubbed SURE, would provide a total of €100 billion [$109 billion] in loans to EU member states to prevent massive lay-offs.

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