The coronavirus pandemic jeopardises the future of Europe, which must roll out "unequivocal, strong and adequate" measures to help countries rebuild their crisis-hit economies, Italy's foreign minister Luigi Di Maio said on Thursday.
"What is at stake here is not the future of Italy, but the future of all of Europe," Di Maio told Germany's DPA news agency in an interview as tough negotiations continue among eurozone countries on the fraught issue of Eurobonds - the mutualisation of European debt.
"We are facing a global pandemic and the EU must give an unequivocal, strong and adequate response. The markets would respond well to such a response," Di Maio said.
Spain and Italy - the European countries hardest hit by Covid-19 - have demanded the issuing of joint eurozone debt ( 'coronavirus' bonds) to help fund nations' economic reconstruction but fiscally conservative Germany and the Netherlands oppose such a move.
Di Maio defended Italy's recent record on public debt, as well as its handling of the Covid-19 epidemic including a drastic month-long lockdown that has brought all non-essential sectors of the economy to standstill, saying that the World Health Organisation has praised the government's measures.
"I am sure we will be back on our feet soon," Di Maio stated.
