Vestager says concerned at EU north-south split (3)

(ANSA) - Brussels, April 3 - European Commission Vice President Margrethe Vestager said Friday she was "deeply concerned" about a north-south split in the EU on responding to the coronavirus's economic impact. "This a pandemic, it's a very different situation from anything else," she told a small group of media outlets including ANSA. "We need an amnesty on the positions seen during the financial crisis. We need a debate without taboos, to understand what to do. We'll only emerge quickly from it if we help each other, otherwise it will take longer with very serious social consequences." The EU is split between southern countries like Italy and Spain which have called for 'coronabonds' and northern deficit hawks like Germany, Netherlands and Finland which have ruled them out.
    Vestager added that it would take time for businesses to do without State aid saying that aid of 2.24 trillion euros in national measures was "temporary because we aim to return to a single market without fragmentation, where businesses compete on the basis of merit. But it'll take time".