Yesterday President of EU Commission has broken a long-standing political and economic taboo, which has divided public opinions among EU countries: the Stability Pact has been suspended, allowing temporarily the Member States to deploy massive fiscal policies to support their economic recovery. Italian PM, Conte, in his interview with the Financial Times, said that EU needs to use the ESM funds with “no strings attached” to finance countries struggling to cope with the pandemic, Paolo Gentiloni, former Italian PM and current European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, agrees on the logic behind Conte’s request. Firebrand eurosceptics Salvini and Meloni fired back against Conte’s proposal, asking a fresh injection of liquidity. Other than monetary stimulus from the ECB, Minister of Economic, Gualtieri argues, recalling Conte’s words, that we should foresee the issue of European guarantees that can be used by each Country under the same conditions and must be related to the fight against coronavirus. Von der Leyen is supportive, but it is expected that the Italian ideas are likely to receive some skepticism by other nations, as from financial institutions.
Minister Gualtieri, in an attempt to tackle the economic provisions of the latest Decree Law, confirms that in the next Decree to be issued on April , thanks to new European rules concerning State Aid (i.e. Temporary Framework) , there will be further measures in favor of medium and large enterprises. Meanwhile, the implementing decrees of the latest Decree Law will concern not only the allocation of different funds - such as for the sanitisation, for culture, school, university, agriculture and support to internationalization - but also, among the others, the guarantee instruments for companies, the implementation of the suspension for mortgages and the launch of Alitalia’s newco.
In the meantime, the Lombardy Region healthcare tragedy is further escalating, putting at strains the work in the ICUs and hospitals in general. Governor of Lombardia has obtained the deployment of 114 soldiers aimed to assure compliance with lockdown measures, the closure of professional offices and public offices, the stoppage of construction sites and further limitation on commercial activities. The Governor of Campania, De Luca, from the Democratic Party, fears that his Region’s fragile healthcare system will suffer dangerous shortages at the height of the contagion peak, and that’s the reason why he asked for the immediate deployment of the Army. Meanwhile, Minister of Health has issued a decree which provide harsher measures, limiting even more freedom of movement (closure of parks and limits to outdoor sport activities). As those aforementioned prolonged closures may will hurt even more the Italian debilitated economy, the lockdown is presenting its toll on energy consumption in Italy, especially in the North. The demand for gas, oil and electricity would, according to first estimates, drop by about 10% , a level that has not been seen since the Second World War.
