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Unless the EU helps its members through coronavirus, some will question what the union really means

Nations need to make sure they are sticking together during the crisis rather than squabbling, writes Hamish McRae

Sunday 29 March 2020 14:43 BST
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Leaders are considering common financial support for countries hardest hit
Leaders are considering common financial support for countries hardest hit

Can the European Union help member states most gravely savaged by the coronavirus outbreak? Or is the real lesson of the past weeks that when there is a disaster countries are on their own?

As the deaths mounted in Italy and Spain last week, the eurozone countries’ leaders met at the European Council to consider whether there should be common financial support for countries hardest hit – and they decided to do nothing.

The specific idea was that there should be a so-called “coronabond” issue, whereby countries could borrow to support their national economies with the debt guaranteed by the 19 members of the eurozone. That was rejected by the Netherlands and Germany. Instead the bloc has asked its finance ministers to come up with some plans in two weeks’ time.

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