BRUSSELS (Reuters) – EU leaders failed friday to advance negotiations on a large stimulus package to revive economies ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic, returning to their Brussels hotels a moment earlier to rest and retire in the morning.
Many of the 27 leaders said upon arrival at their first head-to-head summit in five months that an agreement is essential to save the falling economies and build confidence in the European Union, which has gone from crisis to crisis for years. .
But the authorities said that an economic group of wealthy northern states, run through the Netherlands, had companyd the recovery fund, in the face of opposition from Germany, France, southern countries, Italy and Spain, and Eastern European states.
The sums discussed come with the EU budget 2021-2027 of more than 1 trillion euros and the 750 billion euro stimulus fund, which will be mainly channelled to the countries of the Mediterranean coast affected by the pandemic.
Diplomats said the 27 disagreed with the total length of the package, the distribution of grants and repayable loans in the recovery fund and the rule of law.
But the main hurdle was the procedures for access to aid, said an EU official, and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is not easy for a country to block the fund’s bills if member states subsidize economic reform.
“If you need loans and even donations, I think it makes a lot of sense that you can to the Netherlands Array… that in return, these reforms have been carried out,” Rutte said, estimating the possibilities of an agreement in fifty-fifty.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, even darker.
When leaders separated from the day’s tactics, he tweeted that they were divided through a package of questions and said it was “very likely” that they would not succeed in an agreement on Saturday or even Sunday if the summit stretched beyond the two scheduled dates. Days.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who celebrated her 66th birthday at the negotiating table in Brussels, also distrusts the possibilities of an agreement, seeking “very, very difficult negotiations.”
After the initial elbows among the leaders, all dressed in a face mask, and birthday gifts for Merkel and the Portuguese prime minister, Antonio Costa, held tense evening meetings with Rutte and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Orban, whom critics accuse of stifling the media and NGOs, has threatened to veto the entire plan in a mechanism that would freeze countries that do not meet democratic norms.
At a time when EU economies are in deep recession and rapid relief measures, such as partial unemployment programmes are out, the specter of an autumn of hardship and discontent looms.
The EU is already grappling with Britain’s long-running saga of the bloc’s exit from the bloc and suffers bruises beyond crises, from the 2008 currency crisis to migration disputes.
Another economic surprise may simply spread it to more Eurosceptic, nationalist and protectionist forces, and weaken its position towards China, the United States or Russia.
“The stakes may be higher,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. “The global total is watching.”
Despite disputes over medicines, equipment, border closures and money, the EU has controlled an agreement on a 500 million euro programme to cushion the first blow of the crisis.
Mediterranean countries now need stimulus funding to prevent their economies from ingesting.
“The biggest picture is that we have faced the biggest economic depression since World War II,” said Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. “We want Array … an ambitious solution because our citizens expect no less from us.”
Reporting through Gabriela Baczynska in Warsaw, Elizabeth Pineau and Mathieu Rosemain in Paris, Belen Carreno and Inti Landauro in Madrid, Michelle Martin and Andreas Rinke in Berlin, Marton Dunai in Budapest, Jan Lopatka in Prague, Kirsti Knolle in Vienna, Anthony Deutsch and Tothrough Sterling in Amsterdam, Robin Emmott, Kate Abnett, John Chalmers, Marine Strauss and Francesco Guaras Written through John Chalmers; Editing via Sonya Hepinstall
All quotes were delayed for at least 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of operations and delays.
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