Coronavirus: EU Could Fail Over Outbreak, Warns Italy's Giuseppe Conte

The Italian Prime Minister told the BBC that the European Union risks failing in the coronavirus epidemic as a project.

Giuseppe Conte says that the EU will function in an effective and organized manner to support the countries most impacted by the outbreak.

Mr. Conte says that the European Union must respond to the occasion of what he terms "the biggest check since the Second World War."

This was his first conversation with the UK news media since the Italian pandemic broke out seven weeks ago.

He was speaking as Italy and some other EU countries try to push more frugal members of the bloc to issue so-called "corona bonds" - sharing debt that all EU nations would help to pay off. The Netherlands, in particular, has opposed the idea, leading to a clash between finance ministers of the eurozone.

A month into Italy's strict lockdown, some people can no longer afford to buy food

The Italian prime minister told the BBC that Europe's leaders were "facing an appointment with history" that they could not miss.

"If we do not seize the opportunity to put new life into the European project, the risk of failure is real."

The rate of infection in Italy is slowing-the latest estimates indicate that positive reports have risen marginally more than 1% from the previous day. The rise was 7% two weeks earlier.

The death rate still indicates signs of dropping, from 919 a fortnight ago to 542 deaths over the last 24 hours. But Giuseppe Conte cautioned Italy not to lower its guard and said that the national lockout, imposed on 9 March, could only be slowly eased.

"We need to pick sectors that can restart their activity. If scientists confirm it, we might begin to relax some measures already by the end of this month."

Source: AFP