German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Monday called for a quick and convincing European response to the coronavirus crisis ahead of the special summit of the European Union (EU) member states' leaders this weekend.

Axar.az reports citing foreign media.

"The task is enormous and therefore the answer must also be huge," said Merkel after her meeting with Conte at Meseberg Castle north of Berlin. She said the EU recovery fund must be massive and could not be cut back in size.

She said that she did not know whether an agreement would be reached at the upcoming EU summit. "There is still a long way to go," she said, referring to the scheduled July 17-18 EU summit in Brussels, where the member states will seek a consensus on the European Commission's proposed 750-billion-euro (852 billion U.S. dollars) recovery plan to help the bloc emerge from the pandemic-triggered economic crisis.