Italy warns of EU collapse amid coronavirus bailout row

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Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte
REUTERS

Italy's Prime Minister has warned the EU could collapse if it fails in its response to the coronavirus crisis as he signalled his country’s lockdown might be eased later this month.

Giuseppe Conte said that Europe’s leaders were “facing an appointment with history” that they must not miss as he hit out over the failure so far to agree a financial rescue package for his and other badly affected EU countries.

His warning, in an interview with the BBC, came as Mr Conte indicated that he could be ready to lift some restrictions in his country by the end of April because the infection rate in Italy, the European country worst hit by Covid-19, was beginning to fall.

He said: “It’s likely that if scientists confirm it, we might be able to relax some measures already by the end of this month.

“Experts are confirming that the curve is starting to decline and stabilise. The number of infections is falling. We’re confident that if we continue this way we will overcome the worst phase. But we cannot lower our guard.”

Empty Europe during Coronavirus - In pictures

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Statistics published yesterday showed only a one per cent rise in new infections over the previous 24 hours.

The death toll is also down, with 542 fatalities in the latest daily statistics — not far off half the peak of 919 recorded a fortnight ago.

The signs of progress in Italy came as Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, said today that his country might also be turning the corner in its fight against the virus. “The fire finally starts to come under control,” he told the Spanish parliament.

Germany’s health minister, Jens Spahn, also suggested today that restrictions there could start to be eased gradually after Easter if figures continued to show the current “positive trend”, while schools are reopening in Denmark next week.

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Small shops in Austria are also returning to business, although France extended its lockdown yesterday by banning outdoor exercise.

But the glimmers of optimism were clouded by Mr Conte’s warning about the danger to the future of the EU.

It follows deadlock over a plan to issue so-called “corona bonds” funded by wealthier European nations to prop up the economies of Italy and others.

A key sticking point has been wrangling over whether conditions stipulating economic reforms should be attached, but Mr Conte used his BBC interview to warn that the entire EU project could be called into question if a solution was not found.

A further teleconference meeting on the issue is due today, but Mr Conte warned: “If we do not seize the opportunity to put new life into the European project, the risk of failure is real.” His comments follow rising hostility to the EU within Italy over the lack of support in the wake of an earlier inconclusive meeting of eurozone finance ministers.

Meanwhile officials in Belgium’s Walloon region have requested the support of armed forces to help decontaminate nursing homes, where several hundred residents have died from coronavirus. A third of deaths linked to the virus in the French-speaking region have been registered in rest-homes.

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