Italy's premier Giuseppe Conte on Wednesday welcomed a major recovery fund worth 750 euros that has been proposed by the European Commission to help the 27-nation bloc tackle an "unprecedented crisis" caused by the Covid-19 pandemic
The proposed rescue package is "an excellent sign from Brussels that goes in the direction sought by Italy," Conte tweeted.
"We have been called visionaries because we believed in this from the start. A total 500 billion of grants and 250 billion in loans is an adequate sum," read the tweet.
"Now let's speed up the negotiations and make these resources available soon," the tweet added.
Italy, whose massive 134.8% public debt to GDP ratio was already the second highest in the eurozone after Greece's stands to get over 170 billion euros from the proposed rescue package, Adnkronos learned from government sources.
Besides southern European states like coronavirus-ravaged Italy and Spain, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen's proposal will need to convince "frugal" northern European countries like The Netherlands, which oppose any mutualisation of debt, favouring low-interest loans instead.