Since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic, a number of economists, including myself, have been calling for the European Union to take a bold step towards federalisation, and issue a pan-European bond to fund fiscal responses to the pandemic. This Monday, Germany and France made a move in this direction by announcing the proposal for a European Union-funded recovery fund. The key distinguishing features of this fund, as compared to all of its predecessors, are: It will be funded by the new bonds issued by the EU itself;The money will be disbursed to the Member States in the form of…