European Union leaders may not come to an agreement on a coronavirus stimulus plan on Sunday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned when marathon negotiations reached a third day and accusations escalated over countries’ demands. rich but thrifty.
“There is a lot of good will, but also a lot of positions. I will do my best, but it may not have worked,” Merkel said in Brussels when she arrived for a third day of talks on Sunday.
Germany and France, the EU’s power brokers, are seeking an agreement on an economic recovery package of 1.8 trillion euros (2.06 trillion dollars) to rescue the bloc’s economies, which are facing their worst recession. since World War II.
After two exhausting days of negotiations, a “frugal” group of wealthier northern states, led by the Netherlands, no longer seemed willing to back down from demands for cuts to the package, underscoring the depth of the northern divide- southern EU.
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Divided EU holds second day of talks on coronavirus rescue plan |
Meanwhile, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said there were four big divisive issues in the talks on the recovery package, but that the meeting was determined to close a deal on Sunday.
“We are aware that we have to reach an agreement, we are negotiating under the pressure that an agreement is obligatory,” Orban told reporters.
He listed controversial issues such as: the size of the new recovery fund; the ratio of grants to repayable loans as part of that; the scale of discounts in the EU core budget for wealthy net taxpayers; and the chains of rule of law attached to the brochures of the block.
Late Saturday, Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron left the final leg of the day’s informal talks early, refusing to accept that the level of subsidies for struggling economies be reduced to less than 400,000. millions of euros.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte had previously accused the Netherlands and its allies Austria, Sweden, Denmark and Finland of “blackmail”. Stockholm proposes to reduce the subsidies to 155 billion euros.
“Make or break” moment
In their first face-to-face summit since the outbreak of the coronavirus in Europe, leaders in face masks have framed the summit as a “watershed” moment for nearly 70 years of European integration.
If they don’t unite in the midst of an unprecedented health and economic crisis, serious doubts will arise about the bloc’s continued viability, officials and experts say.
Macron said there was a willingness to compromise, but that it should not deter “from the legitimate ambition we must have,” referring to the money available in the € 750 billion recovery fund plan, to be financed with money raised in the markets. of capital.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who faces parliamentary elections in March 2021, was frank about the divisions with France and Germany on Saturday night.
“They walked away annoyed,” Rutte said of Merkel and Macron. “There are still big differences,” he said.
While the Netherlands and its allies held out, other obstacles remained, not least because Britain’s exit from the EU means that others have to pay more to fill the gap in the bloc’s coffers.
Hungary, backed by its Eurosceptic ally Poland, has threatened to veto the package on a proposed new mechanism, backed by the Dutch and most other EU countries, to freeze countries that do not respect democratic principles.
“There are very different positions,” Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis told reporters. “The Netherlands insists that the rule of law must be one of the conditions for providing funds.”
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