AMSTERDAM/MADRID (Reuters) - European Union divisions were laid bare on Friday as the bloc’s leaders haggled over how far to go to cushion the economic blow from the coronavirus pandemic, with the ailing south left fuming at the resistance of the richer north to extend more support.

FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde attends an Eurozone Finance Ministers meeting in Brussels, Belgium, February 17, 2020. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir/File Photo

The bloc’s 27 national leaders had failed to agree on more economic support in a six-hour call on Thursday, struggling to show unity on issues ranging from economic stimulus to sharing medical equipment and tightening controls on the continent’s normally open borders.

European Central Bank head Christine Lagarde’s call on governments to act more decisively fell flat as Germany and the Netherlands came out forcibly against a push by Italy, Spain, Portugal and France to issue joint bonds.

The leaders also disagreed on the idea of setting up a precautionary credit line from the euro zone’s ESM bailout fund, instead buying time by telling their finance ministers to work out more details of how this would work over the next two weeks.

Italy, where more people have died from the virus than anywhere else in the world, and Spain - also one of the worst-affected countries - expressed fury on Friday at what they saw as the breakdown of EU solidarity.

“We are in this EU boat together. We hit an unexpected iceberg. We all share the same risk right now... History will hold us responsible for what we do now,” said Spain’s Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez said.

The governor of Italy’s Veneto region, one of the hardest hit, likened the situation to the 2015-16 migration crisis that saw the Mediterranean states overwhelmed by a spike in arrivals from the Middle East and Africa, while the rest of the EU sparred over how to respond.

“This EU is totally in hiding, a scandalous absence, without the least amount of direction and health coordination,” said governor Luca Zaia. “It appears to be a replica of the immigration saga.”

The fight also echoes EU arguments over debt mutualisation at the height of the bloc’s 2008-12 euro zone crisis that damaged EU unity.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte played down the rifts.

“There were differences of opinion between a number of more northern and a number of southern countries along the known dividing lines, but nothing that can’t be resolved,” he said.

But Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa suggested the dispute could deal the bloc, which has already seen its first ever departure when Britain left earlier this year, a fatal blow: “Either the EU does what it has to do, or it will end.”

CRISIS OF UNITY

EU diplomats said it would be hard for ministers to agree on their next steps given how deeply split their leaders are.

“The idea of joint debt issuance has never been alive. Just because some people want this does not mean it is already a European project,” said one senior euro zone official.

While German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the ESM was the right tool to address the crisis, Rutte made clear it could only be a last resort and would come with conditions.

Berlin and The Hague were backed by Austria, Finland and others in saying it was too soon to say how long the virus would affect Europe, or the scale of the economic damage.

They said all EU countries were still able to finance themselves in the debt market and the bloc should retain some firepower to be able to step in forcibly later on if needed.

The EU has already loosened state aid rules and limits on public borrowing to allow member states to carry their economies through the expected slump.

As the bloc argued over what more to do, eurosceptics were quick to point out the depth of the crisis of unity.

“It’s visible that in times like this, in the most difficult times, national states are the most important,” said Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

“If the EU is to keep citizens’ trust, it must respond in an adequate manner.”