Euro zone finance ministers are scheduled to meet next Tuesday in what could be a turning point in the European Union’s approach to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ahead of this key meeting, the public health situation on the continent continues to deteriorate:

The biggest COVID-19 outbreaks in the euro zone are in Italy (101,739 cases), Spain (94,417), Germany (67,051), France (45,183), Belgium (12,775), and the Netherlands (12,662). Nearly all are trapped in a cycle of grim, near daily milestones in new deaths. Spain recorded 838 deaths on Monday; Italy 812; and France 418.

Though trending in the right direction recently, these numbers come despite stringent lockdowns in every affected country, which in turn are stifling economic activity and planting the seeds for new upheavals in the weeks, months, and even years to come.

Thus far stimulus and assistance packages have been unveiled on a state-by-state basis. This is obviously a problem for the perceived effectiveness and by extension the legitimacy of EU institutions.

But that might change at next week’s meeting.

An increasing number of governments are calling for just such a change. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sànchez didn’t pull any punches in his assessment, describing the pandemic as “the most difficult moment for the EU since its foundation,” and adding that “it’s Europe’s time to act… Europe is at risk.” The sentiment was echoed by French President Emmanuel Macron, who recently opined “if Europe can die, it’s of inaction.” Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who presides over Europe’s worst-hit country, warned that “nationalist instincts, in Italy, but also in Spain and elsewhere, will be much stronger if Europe is not up to the task.”

These three governments, along with other euro zone members like Greece and Portugal, are pushing for some kind of common debt issuance in response to the COVID-19 crisis: a ‘coronabond’ that’s backed by the entire euro zone, bringing together the ‘black zero’ adherents in Berlin and Amsterdam with the ‘red zero’ spendthrifts in the south.

This is a highly consequential, even existential debate because it speaks to the unbridgeable schism at the core of the euro project, one that emanates from the ongoing presence of monetary union without fiscal union. The concept of shared issuance is anathema to the Dutch and the Germans, as evidenced by their sustained resistance to the idea throughout the Greek sovereign debt crisis. However, if ever there was a crisis that called for a massive, euro-zone wide stimulus initiative – paid for by all those involved – it’s the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yet the fiscal hawks in Germany and the Netherlands are rightfully concerned that a redline once crossed is not much of a redline at all.