The next stage of the EU’s coronavirus meltdown

Debts would be shared. The strong would offer a helping hand to the weak. Money would be raised at incredibly cheap rates to help countries recover from the impact of Covid-19, while at the same time building back a greener, tech-based economy. Last summer, as the epidemic engulfed the continent, the European Union took a massive step forwards towards a fiscal union, launching the ‘Coronavirus Recovery and Resilience Facility’ with £600 billion of common debt. The more swivel-eyed europhiles hailed it as a ‘Hamilton Moment’, a reference to the first Treasury Secretary of the United States who bound that fledging union together through the bond market. It would be a tangible example of how ‘solidarity’ helped everyone. The trouble is, getting on for a year later, the much-hyped fund is turning out not to be as ‘Resilient’ as it was billed, and may not do much for the ‘Recovery’ either.