Italy calls for eurozone crisis fund to be opened up

The ongoing novel coronavirus outbreak could be causing a major financial havoc among European Union nations after Italy's deputy economic minister said the emergency funding pot known as the Economic Stability Mechanism, or ESM, should be made available to help deal with the economic cost of the pandemic.

The ESM has around 410 billion euros ($445 billion) of unused lending power, and its usual rules are that any member state that resorts to using it must adjust its economic policies appropriately, to avoid a repeat of the issues that lead them to seek financial assistance.

Member of the Italian Senate of the Republic Antonio Misiani, whose country has so far been the worst hit in Europe, told Reuters that in the exceptional circumstances, he favored the lifting of conditions on accessing the ESM, something which will not go down well with other countries, including Germany and the Netherlands, and also other politicians in his own country.

"The only acceptable conditionality is that of using the ESM resources to manage the health and economic emergency," said Misiani, from the co-governing center-left Democratic Party.

However, lawmakers from Italy's Eurosceptic co-ruling 5-Star Movement and right-wing opposition groups are against the proposal, saying it would infringe Italian sovereignty and put the country's economy on an even tighter leash.

"ESM doesn't work. Using this instrument to take on a debt for decades is absolutely not in our interests," said Raphael Raduzzi, a 5-Star member of the Parliamentary finance committee.

France's minister of the economy and finance Bruno Le Maire has however backed Italy's plan for using the ESM, saying it had been created to manage economic shocks such as this. "We should not add conditions (on top of) conditions to get use of this instrument," he added.

On Tuesday Eurozone finance ministers were due to discuss proposals by the European Commission on how the fund could be deployed in the face of the pandemic. The European Central Bank, or ECB, has already launched an emergency bond purchase plan worth 750 billion euros, and it has said it would be willing to do more.

"The set of measures adopted has been effective in relieving tensions. We believe today that these are sufficient, but we are ready to do more if needed," Ignazio Viscoisco, governor of the Bank of Italy and a member of the ECB's governing council, said in an interview in Italian newspaper La Stampa.

Italy is now the country in the world worst-affected by COVID-19.As of Tuesday, its death toll had risen to 6,820 and the on-going lockdown is expected to result in a 3 percent contraction of the national economy this year, with the Treasury saying that the outlook remains highly uncertain.