Thursday

28th Mar 2024

Ticker

Indebted Italy to spend €55bn on pandemic recovery

Italy is to spend €55bn on helping people get over the pandemic, prime minister Giuseppe Conte said Wednesday. Most of the money will be spent on unemployment benefits and on €40,000 booster payments for small firms. Larger companies will also get corporate tax holidays. The package comes despite Italy's sky-high public debt levels. But EU officials have signalled Italy can break EU fiscal discipline rules in the special circumstances.

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Opinion

EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania

Among the largest sources of financing for energy transition of central and eastern European countries, the €60bn Modernisation Fund remains far from the public eye. And perhaps that's one reason it is often used for financing fossil gas projects.

'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told

Italian central banker Piero Cipollone in his first monetary policy speech since joining the ECB's board in November, said that the bank should be ready to "swiftly dial back our restrictive monetary policy stance."

Podcast

Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza

This week's Euroscopic explores the consequences of Moscow's terror attack, the convergence of public safety and border/migration policy in an EU election year, and the United Nations Security resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Opinion

Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Rather than assuming a pro-European Labour government in London will automatically open doors in Brussels, the Labour party needs to consider what it may be able to offer to incentivise EU leaders to factor the UK into their defence thinking.

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