Brothers Of Italy Party Insists On European Stability Mechanism Use Amid COVID-19 Crisis

GENOA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd April, 2020) The Brothers of Italy far-right party welcomes the letter by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen with proposals on the support for Italy to fight coronavirus, but continues to insist on the need to use the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) in the current conditions, its leader, Giorgia Meloni, said on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, von der Leyen apologized for the initial lack of action from the European Union at the onset of the epidemic in Italy and promised to financially support the country in its fight against COVID-19. �

"Today Ursula Von der Leyen apologizes to Italy for the European Union having been late [in helping]. Better late than never, but now we are expecting immediate responses from Europe: an unconstrained use of the structural funds that have not yet been spent (which Brothers of Italy proposed 20 days ago), and the announcement regarding the resources for employment," Meloni wrote on her Facebook page.

�In a letter published in La Repubblica newspaper, von der Leyen said that the European Union would allocate up to 100 billion Euros ($108 billion) to the most affected countries, starting with Italy, to compensate for the reduction in the wages through a new mechanism called SURE.

"SURE is a proposal that we will check and study in detail. But the real gamechanger is the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), and on this our position remains the same: let's take our money back and use it to help our families and businesses," Meloni continued.

The ESM was established in 2012 in order to provide access to financial assistance programs for the member states of the eurozone in crisis situations, with a maximum lending capacity of 500 billion euros.

On March 20, Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said the European Union should turn the ESM bailout fund into a coronavirus fund.