FRANKFURT (Dow Jones) – In the dispute over corona bonds, Spain insists that the EU borrows together in order to finance the economic recovery after the health crisis. “Nobody demands that Germany take over the debt of Spain or Italy,” said the Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzlez Laya of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
It praised the EU’s first response, but it is not yet enough. Now a joint, temporary investment by the EU partners is important for the time after Covid-19, in which the worst economic crisis since the Second World War threatens.
“If we don’t act together, we run the risk of transforming ourselves into a trap of others instead of being a force that has political weight in the world,” said the Foreign Minister about the EU. “We need leadership, especially from Germany, but also from the other EU members.”
The Foreign Minister admitted that Spain, like other countries, initially underestimated the virus. The strain on the Spanish healthcare system was also due to cuts after the financial crisis in 2008.
Contact the author: konjkonom.de@dowjones.com
DJG / apo
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 19, 2020 10:19 ET (14:19 GMT)
