“In Italy and the EU unprecedented crisis”

Posted on: 25/03/2020 18:11

“The spread of the coronavirus emergency has triggered in Italy and in the EU an unprecedented crisis“which is forcing us” to a very hard test “and which has led us” to face new life habits “, said Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, during the information to the Chamber on the Covid-19 emergency.

There was a long applause with standing MEPs, during the communications of the Prime Minister, to express closeness to the families of the victims and recognition also for the health workers engaged in these days to fight the epidemic. “These are terrible days for our community” which “every day” reckons with “deaths and loses the most fragile and vulnerable, a pain that is constantly renewed“the words of the premier who addressed the families of the victims with aroused applause.” We would never have thought – he said – of see rows of army trucks with coffins. Our thoughts and our moved closeness go to the families of the victims “.

To the applause of the Chamber, Conte also applauded the “extraordinary effort” of doctors and nurses. “In recent days Michela, a nurse who works in the Covid ward of the hospital in Senigallia, wrote to me. With great dignity, she asked me that the risks that she and her colleagues are taking are not forgotten. On behalf of the government, but I also believe in Parliament, I say that we will not forget you“said Conte.

What “we are fighting” is “an invisible, insidious enemy that enters our homes, divides our families. It makes us suspect of friendly hands, and in the end it has led us to a significant limitation of our movements”.

“The government – he stressed – he acted with the utmost determination and absolute speed, taking well before all other countries, maximum precautionary measures. As early as January 22, well before the WHO declared the coronavirus an international emergency, we have taken various precautionary measures. ”

“The high contagion rate of Covid 19 immediately brought to the attention the risk of an overload of the health system. The limitation of the contagion was immediately a necessary choice“he explained.” We have been the first in Europe to experiment with a regulatory process aimed at reconciling the protection of citizens’ health and the need to ensure adequate democratic safeguards. For the first time since the end of the Second World War – he noted – we have been forced to limit some fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, in particular freedom of movement, of assembly, of cultivating religious practices “.

And he explained that “the principles we have followed are those of the maximum precaution but also of the adequacy and proportionality of the intervention with respect to the objective pursued, this is the reason for the gradualness of the appropriate measures”.

“The economic repercussions of the health emergency, of course, concern the business world closely. It is imperative, therefore, to guarantee the maximum possible degree of liquidity for companies and the government, for this purpose, has prepared significant measures that make it possible to activate a total of 350 billion euros in loans for the benefit of the productive world“highlighted the Prime Minister.

As for the “recession that will probably affect the entire European continent“it will have a” financial impact that will be such as to require the Eurozone’s economic governance to make a qualitative leap up to the challenge “.

The premier also stressed that to face “an unprecedented tsunami” we need “common debt instruments” and “none” of the current EU instruments are suitable. “Italy – remarked the premier – is working on the creation of a common debt instrument of the Eurozone that can finance the efforts of governments and constitute the necessary line of defense”. Hence, “the initiative immediately shared by 8 other EU Member States”, or the letter to the President of the EU Council Charles Michel “to reiterate that the epidemic is causing an unprecedented shock, a tsunami which requires unprecedented measures to contain the spread of the virus and strengthen the health systems of individual countries “.

On the domestic front, Conte also spoke of the choice of the Dpcm: “Since our system does not know, unlike others, an explicit discipline for the state of emergency, we had to build a method of action and intervention never experienced before. We deemed it necessary to resort to the instrument of the Dpcm after having laid its legal foundation in the initial decree law“.

Furthermore, “we have identified in the Dpcm the most suitable, agile and flexible legal instrument capable of adapting to the rapid and often unpredictable spread of contagion. We have understood with this instrument the most uniform application of the measures. Each decree of the Prime Minister has seen the involvement of ministers “with their” political sensitivities “.

The premier then claimed “the significant step, that of the signature on March 14, after 12 hours of intense work, of a shared protocol for the fight against the virus in the workplace”.

“The emergency – he continued – also shows us the importance of protecting our industries of strategic interest, in the light of a wide range of epidemiological, environmental, seismic, IT and geopolitical risks. The country’s most valuable assets must be protected by all means, and we will be able to work in this direction starting from the next regulatory provision in April.“.

“History – tomorrow – will judge us” and “will tell us if we have lived up to it. The time will come for budgets, evaluations on what we could have done and did not do, everyone will have the opportunity to syndicate – frigido pacatoque animo – the work done and draw the consequences. On the other hand, in recent days many have reread and evoked, even publicly, the pages on the plague written by Manzoni in the ‘Promessi sposi’: in this work an ancient proverb is remembered, still today strongly in vogue, so ‘in hindsight the pits are full’ “.

“There will be a time for everything. But, today, it is the time of action, the time of responsibility, from which nobody can escape – said the premier – We will work for a clear, solid, vigorous, coordinated and timely response from Europe, but we will continue, in our internal system, to operate with the utmost determination, the maximum courage, and the confidence that by staying united we will get out soon”.