EU's survival under threat warns billionaire George Soros

Billionaire financier George Soros has warned that the European Union’s survival is under threat from coronavirus unless it can come up with the financial tools to help weak members such as Italy.

Soros wants to see the EU issue bonds, action the bloc has so far decided against taking.

Soros said: “If the EU is unable to consider it now, it may not be able to survive the challenges it currently confronts. This is not a theoretical possibility; it may be the tragic reality.”

Soros added that the EU would have to maintain its AAA credit rating to issue such debt - and thus have to have tax raising powers to cover the cost of the bonds.

Asked about Brexit, Soros said he was particularly worried about Italy: "What would be left of Europe without Italy? The relaxation of state aid rules, which favour Germany, has been particularly unfair to Italy, which was already the sick man of Europe and then the hardest hit by COVID-19."

Soros used Quantum Fund in 1992 to bet successfully that sterling was overvalued against the Deutsche Mark, forcing then Prime Minister John Major to pull the pound out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.