Brussels – European Union (EU) leaders met on Friday for tense summit talks on a multi-billion-euro plan to breathe life into their economies, their first face-to-face meeting since the coronavirus pandemic plunged the bloc into its latest crisis.
The 27 leaders, all masked up, greeted each other with elbow bumps rather than their customary cheek kisses and handshakes, and there were birthday gifts for German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa.
But their display of bonhomie came after weeks of cross-continent quarrelling over the scale and scope of a joint rescue fund. As Merkel went into the talks, due to last two days, she warned that a deal was far from certain.
“I must say that the differences are still very, very big,” she said. “I expect very, very difficult negotiations.”
Dutch opposition and a threat of a Hungarian veto weigh on the chances for a deal on the EU’s 2021-27 budget, envisaged at slightly above 1 trillion euros ($1.1 trillion), and an attached new recovery fund worth 750 billion euros, meant to help rebuild southern economies most affected by the crisis.
The 27 EU heads gathered in a room in the Brussels EU headquarters equipped with hand sanitisers and disinfected headsets. Unusually, as a health precaution, there were no journalists in the building.
Officials said the summit could drag into Sunday if an agreement remains elusive. Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel told Reuters he had brought an extra set of clothes just in case.
With EU economies in free fall, and immediate relief measures such as short-time work schemes running out this summer, the spectre of an autumn of deep economic malaise and discontent is raising its head.
The EU is already struggling with the protracted saga of Brexit and bruised by past crises, from the financial meltdown of 2008 onwards to migration feuds. (Reuters)
