EU summit: extended again
The meeting of the heads of state and government in Brussels was interrupted early Monday morning and is scheduled to continue in the afternoon.
Brussels (dpa) - The EU special summit on post-corona reconstruction is once again going into extra time. This was announced on Twitter by EU Council President Charles Michel. This means that the meeting of the 27 heads of state and government is already running two days longer than planned.
A new negotiating proposal by EU Council President Charles Michel on billion-euro corona aid was discussed since Saturday morning in the big round of 27 countries. The proposal aims to get the negotiations moving, which were deadlocked after the first day of the special summit of EU heads of state and government on Friday.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte had demanded that recipients of EU aid not only promise reforms before they are paid out, but that they have already implemented them. There must be an "absolute guarantee" for this, he said. This was the issue Michel had approached the Netherlands with his new proposal. The head of the Council now wants to grant each country the right to involve the European Council or the Economic and Financial Affairs Council in case of concerns and to temporarily halt the disbursement. A Dutch diplomat described this as a serious step in the right direction.