...European Commission just started raising first part of €88bn 10/20 year AAA debt on international markets to support 17 member states’ pandemic employment programmes - half going to Spain and Italy, as social bonds...
https://twitter.com/business/status/1318487883477585924
essentially deploys AAA credit of northern EU to help more fiscally challenged members - as was long argued about during eurozone crisis - and was cause of some UK concern as a member - “the appetiser” ahead of main course of €1 trillion issuance by 2026 ec.europa.eu/commission/com…
Example of EU moving ahead on pooling sovereignty more quickly than would have been the case had UK still been a member - Remains to be seen what proportion the ECB buys in secondary market - a sort of EU-wide QE. Bundesbank wants to make sure it’s a one off... but it’s happened.
https://twitter.com/schuldensuehner/status/1318320518957760513
Clearly we’ve had EU-wide QE before but this is an instrument which raises funds to be spent by Commission, subject to Council approval 
some interesting questions here for UK outside this framework - any benefit from considering “green gilts” or “social gilts” given this level of demand, as long term borrowing. Probably not required right now given benign borrowing conditions - but something to ponder.
Definitely not immediately - still massive appetite for gov sov bonds, and central banks are swallowing up demand... EU establishing itself as a type of “sovereign” in the bond market just soaks up more of that demand. But it will be worth watching how yield and ratings compare
https://twitter.com/jttf1234/status/1318498879143370752
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