Mehreen Khan Profile picture
Economics Editor @thetimes Dormant-ish account

Apr 7, 2020, 16 tweets

Or maybe not just yet...#eurogroup teleconference to resume ~2340 after over three hours of bilateral talks. If by some miracle ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น and ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฑ agree compromise on the trickiest stuff (ESM, recovery fund) then we have a deal for 10am. If not - more likely - then its back to #euco ๐Ÿ“

Update: #eurogroup resumes with a new compromise text supported by France and Germany. But Italy and the Netherlands still at loggerheads. Rome demanding reference to coronabonds and no conditionality on ESM loans. The Dutch insisting on "phased" conditionality

On the other points, finance ministers agree to use โ‚ฌ200bn in loan guarantees from the EIB. And details of a "recovery fund" (French fund or Spain's SPV) will be left for EU27 leaders to sort out

Yes the #Eurogroup is still in session. 1.30am and ministers are on another drafting break. Italy still demanding explicit mention of coronabonds rather than "innovative financial instruments" ...

Still no sign of a new #Eurogroup draft What's the Zoom etiquette for switching off the vid and having a snooze when the chat is dead ?

Just under three hours until a scheduled #Eurogroup presser. Meeting continued throughout the night with no breakthrough between ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น and ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฑ. As of now...still in a drafting break

#eurogroup expected to resume Thursday after ministers fail to agree common text after over 13 hours

The 10am presser has also been cancelled #eurogroup

Confirmation from Centeno #eurogroup

Our take on a very long night over Zoom in this morning's @ftbrussels briefing ft.com/content/da1411โ€ฆ

Scholz urges countries not to "refuse a compromise". He's talking to ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฑand ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น after French, Germans, Spanish said they could live with draft compromise that emerged somewhere around 1am last night

For the next 18-24 hours, Gualtieri and Hoekstra will be claim they fought to the bitter end for their national interest. That will be either v helpful or unhelpful for the chances of a Maundy Thursday compromise #Eurogroup

Hoekstra: it is too early to agree a comprehensive package

It's that time of the year I guess but some distinctly northern eurozone diplomats think ESM conditionality is the "cross the Dutch will die on"

Worth noting that Hoekstra went into #Eurogroup after hearing complaints from Dutch MPs about Hungary getting extra cash from EU for coronavirus while openly flouting values. Italy and fiscal response is not the same but room for generosity over ESM conditionality vanishing in ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฑ

๐Ÿ”ฅ Bruno Le Maire: "As we are counting deaths by hundreds and thousands, finance ministers are playing with words and adjectives. We should have a common understanding of the gravity of the crisis...ย We will be judged severely first by the markets, then by our populations"

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