Leaders of the European Union, after a 90-hour summit, signed a 750-billion-euro deal ($860 billion) for a post-virus recovery package. The intense negotiation saw threats of France walking out, a Hungarian veto and a fierce opposition from Netherlands and Austria to a too-generous package.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who views the deal as a very special victory, called the summit “a marathon which ended in success for all 27 member states, but especially for the people”.
Macron, who came to office in 2017, has been committed to strengthening the European Union but had struggled to deliver against member states with less ambition for the seven-decade-old EU project. “This is a historic change for Europe,” Macron told reporters in a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, an AFP report read. Merkel expressed relief that Europe had shown itself equal to “the greatest crisis in the history of the European Union”.
"Deal!," tweeted European Council president Charles Michel, soon after the 27 national leaders sat down at the summit's final session.
The proposal for the fund was drafted in early May by French President Macron. Of the funds, 390 billion euros will be given out as grants and 360 billion euros as low-interest loans.
Tens of billions of euros will be given to the countries hardest hit by the virus including Spain and Italy. But during the summit, this move was opposed by a group of northern nations like the Netherlands who believed strongly that the stimulus package was unnecessary.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez hailed “a Marshall Plan for Europe”, that would boost Spain's ailing economy by 140 billion euros over the next six years.
The recovery package decided at the meeting at Brussels is called the 'Rule of Law', and it will complement the unprecedented monetary stimulus at the European Central Bank, that has largely succeeded in reassuring the financial markets despite a catastrophic recession in Europe.
Long-term plan in the package also agrees to spend 1.8 trillion euros in the next eight years. Technical nitty-gritty and detailed negotiations with member states are still pending before it can be finalised in the European Parliament.
