Rome and The Hague are happy with the draft as it stands. A southern European diplomat offers rare praise for 🇳🇱. "We have to be fair to them, they moved"
New crucial par 16 on ESM: "The only requirement to access the credit line will be that euro area MS requesting support would commit to use this credit line to support domestic financing of costs direct and indirect healthcare, cure and prevention related costs due to COVID 19"
As part of the compromise, Mario Centeno will send a letter to EU leaders laying out that some capitals are in favour of coronabonds and others are not. Debt mutualisation is not mentioned in the formal text
On recovery fund, minimal changes and it is kicked up to EU leaders: "Such a fund would be temporary, targeted, and commensurate with the extraordinary costs of the current crisis and help spread them over time through financing" ("appropriate financing) is gone
There have been lots of painted villains in this Eurogroup saga but one man that will emerge his stock a little higher in last 48 hours is Germany's @OlafScholz who played role of mediator between the two sides, say officials. Scholz for Eurogroup president? 👀
Finance ministers and their delegations have seen the deal and they are happy 🐰. Now, time for Easter! #eurogroup
Words I have longed to say. The #eurogroup is over and we have a deal.
Italian finance minister Roberto Gualtieri: "We have put on the table of the European Council a Recovery Fund enabling common debt issuance. Off the table is any conditionality on the use of ESM financing. Now it's up to the leaders to take the right decisions"
Dutch finance minister Wopke Hoekstra says #eurogroup reached a "sensible" deal and says that ESM money will still come with conditions. "That is sensible and reasonable"
Conditions or no conditions ? In essence it probably will never matter. Prospect of Italy taking an ESM loan under current political conditions is pie in the sky
Centeno: "This proposal contains bold and ambitious proposals that would have been unthinkable just a few weeks ago.
We can all remember the response to the financial crisis of the last decade, when Europe did too little too late. This time around is different" #eurogroup
We can all remember the response to the financial crisis of the last decade, when Europe did too little too late. This time around is different" #eurogroup
On coronabonds for the recovery effort, Centeno will tell EU leaders: "Some member states have expressed the view that this should be done by common debt instruments. Other member states said alternative ways should be found".
The #eurogroup now hands the baton back to EU leaders on how to fund the recovery. Centeno has some parting words for them: "Far-sighted leaders plan for peace before the war is over"
Centeno's feed suspiciously goes dead when he is asked about member states divisions over coronabonds 👀👀
Hoekstra on eurobonds: "I'm not OK with it, I never was OK with it and i will never be with. It is unfair to the Dutch taxpayer. It will increase the risks to the union as a whole, it is unwise and it should be avoided."
Hoekstra says "innovative financial instruments" is "deliberately vague" so all sides can read what they want into it. While 🇮🇹 says it means debt mutualisation,🇳🇱say no way: "It is important not to fool ourselves, you cannot ever read anything about debt mutualisation in it.
