(ANSA) - Brussels, April 2 - European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen meanwhile told La Repubblica daily that Europe was "now mobilizing at Italy's side but it must be recognized that in the first days of the crisis too many countries thought only of their own problems, a dangerous conduct that could have been averted".
The EU's new instrument for temporary Support to mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency (SURE) is designed to help protect jobs and workers affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
It will provide financial assistance, in the form of loans granted on favourable terms from the EU to Member States, of up to 100 billion euros in total.
These loans will assist Member States to address sudden increases in public expenditure to preserve employment.
Specifically, these loans will help Member States to cover the costs directly related to the creation or extension of national short-time work schemes, and other similar measures they have put in place for the self-employed as a response to the current coronavirus pandemic.
The European Stability Mechanism bailout fund, as it is, is "completely inadequate" to provide the necessary funds to counteract the economic impact of the coronavirus, Gentiloni said Thursday. "The ESM was born in another historical epoch and today it is completely inadequate for what we are facing," he told Sky news. If the conditions restricting its use were to change, he said, "it might be looked at in a different way, but let's not get fossilized, we have several other instruments and various goals". Italy is pushing for coronabonds to fund the response to the virus-i