But the ministers were not able to reach an agreement on issuing joint bonds, known as “corona-bonds,” despite pleas from the leaders of Italy and Spain, which are bearing the brunt of the crisis, after staunch resistance from Germany, the Netherlands and others. And, in a victory for the Netherlands which was lobbying to restrict how the bailout funds can be used, the ministers decided they should be limited to health-related programs.

Throughout its history, the European Union has refused to issue joint bonds, but the size and scope of the current crisis had led some analysts to think the bloc might be willing to back the idea this time, which would have represented a major step in bringing it closer to becoming a United States of Europe. Pooling debt was foundational to the creation of the United States, and it would be considered a momentous step in the bloc’s governance structures moving toward federalism.

But the need for unanimous backing of major measures — always a brake on swift and bold decisions by the European Union in times of crisis — derailed the bond idea and meant that negotiations for the shape of the economic package were fraught. It took a second meeting to build consensus, after an attempt on Tuesday ended in acrimony.

The finance ministers were well aware of the dramatic toll the virus was taking on all the bloc’s economies and that a failure to produce an agreement would be disastrous for the confidence of both the bloc’s citizens and for financial markets. As the United States moved to announce stimulus measures, there was a growing sense that Europe was once again doing too little too slowly.

“The most important thing for the finance ministers was to sign off on a deal and a €540 billion tagline,” said Mujtaba Rahman, the head of Europe practice at Eurasia Group, a consultancy. “But despite everyone patting themselves on the back, there are lots of substantive gaps in the deal that will only become apparent later down the line,” he added.