The momentous issue of fiscal union has to be addressed once and for all.

ECB was each time left to do the dirty work and find plausible ways to skirt the EU treaty law. " 

It is no longer viable - economically or politically - to keep buying time by piling more debt on southern European states already on the threshold of runaway debt trajectories. 

There must be joint debt issuance and debt forgiveness, along the lines of the London Conference in 1953 when half of Germany’s foreign loans were written off - for the good of all.

The IFO Institute says the Bundesbank may one day have to suspend target2 payments the ECB system to protect its own solvency. 

Dr Schauble,  now president of the German Bundestag, says it is a dangerous distraction to call for new instruments that require a EU treaty change, and would come too late to make any difference in this pandemic.

“Even in a crisis, you have to behave correctly. You have to respect parliamentary democracy and the rule of law. Germans have a constitution that tells us what is permissible or not,” he said.

Germany’s top court has already ruled that joint eurobonds violate Germany’s Basic Law. 

And yet, if Germany sticks to its guns, it risks the death of the euro, and the single market, and the whole post-War European experiment. 

Europe’s leaders will no doubt come up with a fudge over the coming days, concocting some sort of hybrid debt security to blow smoke and buy time. 

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph 8 april 2020

EU Finance Chiefs Agree on $590 Billion Virus Rescue Package

A temporary fund that would help kick-start the recovery and support the hardest-hit countries, while leaving open key details, including how it would be financed.

As with many an EU deal, everyone claimed a victory and some of the thornier details will still need to be ironed out among the leaders.


Bloomberg 9 April 2020

Diskussionen om euroobligationer är långt ifrån över.
5 500 miljarder avvärjer eurokris – men bara för stunden


Teresa Küchler SvD 10 april 2020

Germany, it says, will never accept a “transfer union”. Target 2