corona virus outbreak and yet at the same time the european union leaders have stressed that there is a need to try and work hand in hand at the european union level because obviously european union countries have close links let's not forget some that i'm on when my corn also mentioned that issue of borders that were closed borders that are not now in the process of being reopened step by step and that includes by the way the german french border so there is an increasing understanding that there has to be a common european solution a common european approach to all this one of the elements again that has been stressed that was also stressed in this. press conference was that idea of reopening the board does let's not forget that european union close external borders that european union countries also closed that a bilateral board does an odd job many other countries out step by step announced that they're raising those restrictions so that's also shows how important it is to try and find a common approach when it comes to some of the key european union adman's those are all elements that what discussed in this press conference today told u

if you will allow me, this is a process of maturing of the european union as a political union and asas giving the example of the united states, you can see how a mature democracy is struggling with it sitting in eu we are making progress. step—by—step. just by —— just today the european commission took poland to court again over undermining the independence of the judiciary. there are more and more court cases. and this is something that you will, that is being built up that you will, that is being built up step—by—step. the procedure, as we call it, the article seven procedure... i know what you call it that interestingly i spoke to a seniorfigure in the hungarian government the other day and he said to me that the feelings of those european parliament liberal leftist politicians have no imprint on how we run hungary. put simply, we don't ca re we run hungary. put simply, we don't care anymore. it has gone on for too long and if he calls me a left—wing eyewear that is a badge of honour. but, look, if you want to join the clu b but, look, if you want to join the club you have to play

the public prosecutor and by police are initiated based on recommendations by all of this european union union agency hungary is amongst the best in fact performers of the percentage of how many cases are looked into following a lot of things there are similar cases with other european union member states i reject the opinion that there would be more corruption or significantly more corruption in hungary than in an average situation in the region or in the european union well it must be a comfort for you and other members of your party the fetus now enjoys an effective stranglehold over prosecutor's offices the constitutional court the curia the highest court of appeal and the audit office grand slam to your party to total total control of the organs and just all that is not the case at all that is not the case at all that is an often repeated political attack by a frustrated hungry an opposition that hasn't been able to win elections for a good number of national elections now and they are frustrated they have been unsuccessful but that doesn't make truthful there was accusations that you hav

if you allow me, this is a process of maturing of the european union as a political union. le of the us, you can see how a mature democracy is struggling with it. in the european union we are making progress. step—by—step just today, the european commission took poland to court again over basically undermining the independence of the judiciary. there are more and more court cases and this is something which you have to... it is being built up step—by—step. the procedure as we caught, the article seven procedure... i know what you call but it may interest you to know that i spoke to a senior figure in the hungarian government the other day and he said this to me, he said "the feelings of those european parliament liberal leftist politicians have no imprint on how we run hungary. put simply, we don't ca re any we run hungary. put simply, we don't care any more." it has gone on for far too long and if he calls me a left wing liberal, i will wear that asa left wing liberal, i will wear that as a badge of honour. but look, if you want to join the club, you have to play by the rul

european union's response to this massive coronavirus challenge. well, look, frustration is part of life, but if i look at the development of the european union over s, i note that every time it was a crisis that triggered further integration and development, and, look, everybody is struggling with this crisis, and, yes, so is the european union. but it took a while, we can see that, first of all, the response to the health crisis to start with has really taken momentum now in terms of, for example, the joint procurement of protective materials and stuff like that. yes, there is a big argument over money, and that's of course always a very difficult one. there is an issue of solidarity, trust and, yeah, those are difficult challenges. let's go through this piece by piece. do you think there's institutional complacency in the city you're speaking to me from, brussels? i'm just mindful of, for example, an official memo that was sent on february 5 from a senior european commission official saying at a private meeting about coronavirus and europe's preparations given what was happening in china by then, he said, "things are under control." now, they pa

in previous negotiations between the european union leaders and this particular case both leaders stressing that this will be within the framework of european union 5 jets that the money for example will not have to be repaid by specific countries but will be repaid by several successive european union budgets that's probably one of the key elements why germany agreed to this proposal i do expect terry that this will be a controversial issue not only here in germany but also in other european countries as well. we heard chancellor merkel there talking about a signal that this sends a signal to the rest of europe what sort of signal do you think she meant. well european union leaders have been very divided about this issue that was also something that was clear for example when european union finance ministers met for a very long time to try and come off with the 1st aid package that was agreed on and that was something that revealed once again the fractures within the european union when it comes to a very big crisis that they have to tackle it's revealed what analysts describe as another north south divide between countries that were favoring on

listen to a clip of how she puts the corona virus on the foreign outlook of the european union. >> i would likely european uniono also show global solidarity and take on more responsibility in times of crisis. in many places, the pandemic will lead to an escalation of existing problems. that will test the european union possibility to act together to -- act together. we need to represent the values we stand for within the e.u., solidarity, democracy,, freedom an protection of human dignitary -- human dignity to the outside world. brett: talking about values the outside world. sounds like more of a states woman than a politician. do you think angela merkel will be able to get her way, especially in terms of foreign and security policy? >> well, she certainly is trying a very tricky balance in the. she will be very busy holding this together within the e.u.. the buzzword is solidarity. she believes that e.u. could emerge from this crisis stronger. the outside world, she was referring to then, she put those exact values also in relation to china. she said there were fundamental differences on those key values of d

european union to show they bombed. the libyan national army a european still not in the future in a boy is such that simple. not their weight the european union burks european union member could get again to big game if there is an opportunity if there is separate i still made that they could again try to broker a cease fire you mentioned the different european interests this is understandable if you look just to italy and to france italy has the key has key economic interests before it got to libya they tell you economic interests mostly focus them best them libya ok italy has key security interests are also focused on western libya in particular make ration for friends it's different for them what counts is counterterrorism count that there isn't which is terrorism which is a particular threat for the french vital strategic interests in the central sahara region and therefore the french are also key leaning towards the libyan national army if you want to fight terrorism safe havens in southern libya the only one choice you have to cooperate if it's the libyan national army you may like to go not all right we are unfortunately out of time bu

union yourrope to help second-biggest trading partner? i think thatrz: this package is good, but we are not in favor of ideas like corona bonds or ideas like that in the european union. italy it'sit costs european unionembership? how important to you is the membership of other eu countries like italy? chancellor kurz: well, there is no debate about the membership of italy in the european union. we are united in the european union with good cooperation and i think we will manage this ables and we will also be to manage the economic situation. be within it will norma's difficulty. >> austria, germany, the netherlands, all of these countries were well prepared before the crisis hit, but there are other european countries like italy and spain, which were already in a bad fiscal situation. paymuch are you prepared to in order to keep the european union together? in order to save the countries that were hit so much harder? maurice: it is clear --chancellor kurz: it is clear we want to support them and show solidarity. the minute they agreed on this 500 billion euro package to support these countries and in a european level, we are also in a discussion if more help is needed. >> so, do you think it is possi

and in the european union, the rulings of the european union, the rulings of the european union, the t ofjustice, they have to be implemented by the member states, the buck stops with that court. the national courts have no say. so the ruling of the german constitutional court can set a really dangerous precedent in european practice. it can lead to, for instance, countries like hungary, which is already in a state of emergency and practically a non—democracy in europe, or poland, or even the countries of greece, the government of greece, italy, portugal, questioning rulings of the ecb on the grounds that they violated the remit of the european institutions. the ecb being the european central bag? yes, the european central bag? yes, the european central bank. so if you start to have many member states questioning the legitimacy of european institutions, that's pretty much the beginning of the end. on the other point you made about the lack of solidarity between the north and south and so the divisions between the alleged saints of the north and the alleged sinners of the south, this e

expectation of the european union and can also see member states are cooperating and asking for a stronger commission and a stronger coordination and cooperation with india european union and what i also see is that member states realize that they really need each other and you can make the comparison if the if we had this crisis and we didn't have the european union the crisis would have been huge much much worse than today so we have the opportunity to work together and we are working together and of course in a crisis you can see tendencies of different directions but there is also a lot of strong tendencies towards closer cooperation and helping each other well let's look if we may at how the commission has honed on this crisis because on february the 5th one of your officials at a closed door meeting with diplomats said things around the control there's a strong level of preparedness in member states this was february the 5th strong level of preparedness in member states most of measures to detect and treat covert 19 at the time 60000000 people were on the lockdown in china and everything was about to become very much out of control wasn't it why didn't you check

the european union union is threatening to sue the u.k. for breaches. sion says london failed to notify brussels about legislative changes restricting movement including making it harder for eu citizens to claim welfare payments. the u.k. has been given four months to respond before fines are imposed. the first typhoon of the season has hit the philippines under lockdown. ofre was a forced evacuation 200,000 people. the storm is cutting a path toward vanilla where of actuation -- manila where evacuation processes. dozens of churches are being open to accept people. global news 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. this is bloomberg. >> jd.com do to report their recorder results in the next didt says the coronavirus not have a negative impact short-term but expect 3% year on year revenue growth. comparing toms of some other e-commerce names benefiting from the pandemic, you do not see jd.com as having that advantage. [no audio] we will try to get back to vicki in a moment. a factory shining shipment

divisions here, because mark british eurosceptics used to grumble that whenever the european union the mark european unionbe "more europe". if that was the brussels disease, perhaps the pandemic will cure it. 27 countries have pursued 27 different policies, with the closure of borders removing one of the continent's major selling points, borderless trade and travel. covid—i9 has exposed again a deep fault line which became apparent a decade ago: the wealthier north doesn't wasn't to share the costs of the poorer south. this is something you have been going about this week, wide? very much, because if europe does not get its act together, and by this i mean be solidarity, have a european vision to address this crisis, the whole european project might as well unravel. we witnessed about ten days ago a ruling by the german constitutional court questioning the judgment of the european court of justice on the bond buying scheme of the ecb. the long and short of this is that we have a national constitutional court questioning the authority of the european court of justice. in european union, the ruling of the e

if there is, that is a forming moment for the much closer european fists go union -- european fiscal unionelyyou have to work with the bond spreads and ut spreads again. it may be something that doesn't happen, but certainly every time you get a big economic shock or recession, the stresses and strains of the current loose fiscal arrangements within the euro area come back to the fo re. it may be the what-happens-next story. lots oftill have government debt and deficits, will people start talking about finding italy amid a large deficit? this is really going to come to a head. francine: what does it mean for some of the european assets? do you like them less than maybe american assets, or do you make a distinction regionally? does asia look more attractive because they recovered quicker? trevor: the u.s. looks more attractive. the u.s. has approached the -- the u.s. approach to the coronavirus is very patchy and chaotic and pretty much done at the state level. i have a chart that looks at the degree to which economies were topening versus the degree which they have got a surge in virus cas

fact that people are coming in regularly as migrants and refugees go to to the european union is not a failure for european union this is a challenge that they have to deal with and i'm convinced that we can do it together it is a failure where 19000 the locked up in a camp that is only designed for 3000 and your programs funding the among other things the libyan coast guard result in hundreds and thousands of people being incarcerated against their will raped beaten and so sold as slaves why do you all rush out of the programs that you found in this direction no shame no shame no here little you have to imagine situation no. you have got to have this situation in libya but i may i just answer your question i'm not ashamed but we are doing from european union i do not see how the very very dangerous bad situation in libya would be better if you were a peon union was not there helping refugees to be relocated out of this camps in libya helping people for voluntary returns out of libya to their home countries if we were not there if we were not there to helping out trying to teach the libyan coast guard on humanit

corona crisis in relation to the foreign policy outlook of the european union eventually near the silk usual i would like the european union to also show global solidarity and take on more responsibility in times of crisis in many places the pandemic will lead to an escalation of existing conflicts and problems that will test the european union's ability to act together in terms of foreign and security policy and take it with you. more and we need to represent the values we stand for within the e.u. solidarity democracy freedom and protection of human dignity also to the outside world oh. your intelligence talking about our values to the outside world sounds like more of a a stateswoman than it does politicians do you think uncle americal will she be able to get her way especially in terms of foreign and security policy. well she certainly is trying a very tricky balance indeed she will be very busy holding the salt together within the e.u. the buzzword is solidarity she believes the e.u. could emerge from this crisis stronger at the same time the outside world she was referring to that means china she put those exact valu

european union? >> i think it's game change from the point of view that move on to the next step of union. ion but union. i think this is a very important part of the whole process. back just a k few years ago, many people -- marked it doing what it is today, including so i think rs, essentially it's a changing moment and we'll see more of moments as we move ahead in the next 12 to months through this coronavirus epidemic. let's face it. the european union is the body that's reacted to the virus as a whole although that hasn't een fully in place elsewhere in the world. we've had a complete collapse of global coordination. much more nationalistic, approach. expect that approach to continue? >> well, as you were saying it does seem that .s. and china are path.uing that we have a situation where we we're situation where going back exactly to what we were before this whole pandemic set on, the trade tension between the united states and china. to ink politicians need knock their heads together their act together everywhere. we, taxpayers, need to tell the governments that we need to cut out thi

of economic cooperation and this is what i expect from the european union that should be mentioned on the summit between china and european union china is pursuing its belton road initiative making inroads also into europe do you think that europe is capable of speaking with one voice when it comes to a foreign policy approach to china that would have any effective influence. this is the question of a common strategy looking to those countries of the european union that are economically linked to the bed wrote initiative for china and some of them on this of course because they see that. it's giving money for their project but they have also political topics on the agenda that should be pushed through by doing this economic. ject. by the way i think to have a land line between china and europe it's a good idea part of their lead lined it's an enclosed to my constituency and also i was fadia but linking political questions with this doctrine economic project is not there what we can accept and this what needs to be the message of all the 27 european union member states to china when we have this summit in autumn. mr hart thank y

union in europe to help your second trading partner? ,ebastian: this package is good but we are not in favor of ideas like corona bonds or mutual is asian of debt the european union debt in thetion of european unionportant to you as the membership of other countries like italy? sebastian: there is no debate about membership. we are united in the european union. there is good cooperation and i think we will manage this crisis and we will be able to manage the economic situation. of course, it will be enormous difficulty. matt: austria, germany, the netherlands were well prepared before the crisis hit but other european countries like italy and spain were already in a bad fiscal situation. paymuch are you prepared to to keep the european union together, to save those countries that were hit so much harder? wanttian: it is clear we to support them and show solidarity. it is good that the ministers of finance agreed on the 500 billion euro package to support these countries and on the in aean level, we are discussion if more help is needed. matt: do you think it is possible -- the austerity you practice what you in a good position now but your second-biggest trading partner, italy, has 158% debt to g

between member states in european union but that we have summits that fail to come to a conclusion it's not a new phenomenon that's how it's been all the time in the european union and the right of that was difficult already oh read it from the beginning to find a compromise and of course now when the needs are much much bigger there's a need a much more money into this of course is not easier to come to conclusions especially not when you're not meeting face to face so i don't think that we should use this this is not in my view this is not what we are seeing is not a failure of european union we have a lot of difficulties of course but they say these are not new difficulties and we can manage them not so not a failure brule america is a clown show and the french president emmanuel macro says if the is going to die it will die from inaction you say that you get disagreements over time in the you but this is a critical situation because this is a life and death crisis you would expect better under these circumstances wouldn't you you seem very tolerant of all this incompetence and squabbling. well i think of course this is a very christian esque critical situati

european union. well it is indeed interest of the european union when it comes to its economy to lead goods and people move freely within the shank and so on and and get america confirmed that of may to 15 as i've made a fifties there will be less controls on the borders with neighboring friends switzerland and austria with all the border crossings a really open and not just a few selected ones as has been the case for some weeks now and botha controls will be lifted altogether was a tax on both now to plan if all goes well is to eliminate border controls in all this tank and zone so $26.00 states by me do it and we do the german chancellor angela merkel's you dress that difficult balancing act today between controlling the virus and easing restrictions the german government does it enjoyed broad support across parliament and the population for its plans. well the easing of our necks ations easy dividing a sure enough course and economy quicker questions of the pandemic of our diet here as is the case in not a country not of countries as well but despite germany's good results in tackling the pandemic

answer to the challenge and she said that the european union faces the choice of member states going it alone or responding together. the european union's massive recovery funding plan is aimed at helping member states hardest hit by the pandemic italy and spain will get the lion's share the commission president and brussels keen to play out europe's united approach the aim must be to invest together in our common good we will be bold by raising unprecedented amounts of funding at european level we will be focused by channeling the funding to the new priorities that will shape the future. in practice it's germany and france which are driving the plan and will provide most of the money german chancellor angela merkel for the 1st time accepting joint e.u. debt as part of a mutual recovery strategy. is of course not and this proposal contains elements of both what was discussed between germany and france as well as elements of the guarantees and loans that were mentioned by 4 other countries. and now we start negotiating with $400.00 a group of northern e.u. countries known as the frugal for the netherlands led by prime minister mark ritte

president of venezuela so what they are doing in most of the country of the of the european union now britain out of the european union and united states is a coup. in venezuela they are recognizing a parallel government a fake government trying to impose it trying to get their companies to rebuild what they will destroy and to take the venezuelan oil gas gold etc it is absolutely unacceptable and specially for the diplomacy for of europe which is supposed to be so politically correct and so respectful from the international law they have destroyed international law they have ignored international law the charter of the united nations the rights of the venezuelan people the venezuelan constitution it's really outrageous and we just can see that at some point all of those governments will have to apologize to the world and to future generations for what they have done in the last years again to venezuela well you say it's a coup we have no proof or evidence of british involvement in the mercenary attack on your country in the past few days donald trump said if he wanted to invade venezuela he would send in the army wha

debts and all the proposal is that the european union at a central level would take up that's there are in fact guaranteed by all countries in the european union that money is going to be paid directly to the countries concerned not as a loan but as a direct payment and the repayment of the learner's then the responsibility of all other countries in the european union communally in other words germany too would be standing off for some other state in that sense it's a total reversal of german positions this plan meantime it is by no means a done deal is the real challenge now convincing the other e.u. partners to come i'm bored. absolutely that's going to be a very very difficult task already the countries opposed to such measures such as australia the netherlands denmark and sweden have voice their opposition to this new move at the same time one has to say president mccall of france said if germany and france cannot agree on anything then there will be no agreement in the european union so the agreement between these 2 very important central countries in europe is an important basis for the possibility of this plan being adopted but one can

european union. we are united in the european union. is's good cooperation and i think we will manage this crisis and we will also be able to manage the economic situation. but of course, it will be enormous difficulty, yes. matt: austria, germany, the netherlands -- all these countries were prepared before the crisis hit, but there are other european countries like italy and spain which were already in a bad fiscal situation. prepared to pay in order to keep the european union together, in order to save those countries that were hit so much harder? ust: well, it is clear for that we want to support them and that we want to show solidarity, and i think it is good that the ministers for finance agreed on this 500 billion euros package to support these countries, and of course on the european level among the heads of state, we are in discussion if more help is needed. matt: do you think it is possible -- i mean, the austerity that you practice put you in a good position now, but your second-biggest trading 150 debt toly, has gdp. is it pos