Austrian finance minister says flexible on ESM, rules out euro bonds

Austrian Finance Minister Gernot Bluemel is willing to use a lot of flexibility with the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) to help European partners recover economically from the coronavirus crisis but reiterated his opposition to common eurozone debt. "There are other possibilities, like the European Investment Bank, and other things and the fact is that the existing instruments have not been used so I don't understand the debate when you say you need this," he told Germany's ZDF television, when asked about euro bonds.

European finance ministers are trying to agree on measures to help economies that are suffering particularly badly from the impact of the virus.