European Union leaders, all masked up, greeted each other with elbow bumps rather than their customary cheek kisses and handshakes as they met face-to-face for a summit in Brussels
Locked away in a room for more than seven hours on Friday, the 27 national EU leaders seemed no closer to a deal on the bloc’s 2021-27 budget, proposed at above 1 trillion euros, and a linked new recovery fund worth 750 billion euros, meant to help rebuild southern economies most affected by the pandemic.
“I must say that the differences are still very, very big,” she said. “I expect very, very difficult negotiations.”Several hours and a lunch of cold fish cuts later, EU heads were hard-pressed to come together even on the building blocks of the package, including the overall size of the budget and the special stimulus scheme or the proportion of free grants versus repayable loans in the recovery fund, diplomatic sources said.
European Union leaders take part in the first face-to-face EU summit since the coronavirus disease outbreak, in Brussels, Belgium July 17, 2020. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir/PoolRutte also said making EU handouts conditional on respecting democratic standards was key, an idea that prompted nationalist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to threaten to veto the entire plan.
The EU is already grappling with the protracted saga of Britain’s exit from the bloc and bruised by past crises, from the financial meltdown of 2008 onwards to feuds over migration.
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