Eurozone ministers to talk April 7 on virus response

Finance ministers of the 19-country eurozone are to hold a videoconference on April 7 to try to forge an economic response to the coronavirus crisis, its chairman said Monday.

"The Eurogroup will meet April 7 to act on the EUCO (European Council) Leaders' mandate to deliver proposals to reinforce our EU policy response to COVID-19," Mario Centeno said on his Twitter account.

The virtual meeting follows a March 26 videoconference of leaders of EU countries that told the Eurogroup it has up to two weeks to come up with a joint response to the crisis which risks plunging Europe into deep recession.

That leaders' call, however, revealed deep divisions between fiscally austere northern countries and more economically fragile southern ones that wanted economic bazookas to be brought out to help them cope.

While the Eurogroup consists of countries using the euro, next week's videoconference will also be open to other EU countries.

Italy, Spain, France and six other euro-using countries last week called for an "instrument" to be created allowing a common eurozone bond issue, sometimes called "coronabonds".

That has long been a warhorse for indebted southern EU countries such as Italy, but fiercely resisted by deficit-leery northern countries.

The latter group would prefer to see money shaken out of the European Stability Mechanism which offers loans to countries in difficulty.

The problem for countries such as Italy, the member state that is most in the red with public debt of 130 percent of GDP, is the strings that are attached. They also fear markets will baulk at the negative impression caused by seeking such assistance.