On Thursday afternoon, EU leaders failed to agree for a third time on the scale of support for their economies battered by the coronavirus pandemic and gave themselves two more weeks to work out details. Backed by France, Spain and seven other eurozone countries, Italy wants a “European recovery bond” or “coronabonds” – namely, EU-backed debt to lift member states out of a recession and increase spending on healthcare. However, the idea of shared debt remains anathema to Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, who shunned the similar concept of “eurobonds” during the eurozone crisis a few years earlier.