EU leaders leave after extending summit

European Union leaders on Saturday extended their summit by an extra day, convinced they were finally closing in on a deal for an unprecedented 1.85 trillion euro (2.1 trillion US dollar) EU budget and coronavirus recovery fund, an EU official said.

Heading into a balmy summer night, a deal was still far off, but several key nations said negotiations were at least heading in the right direction despite tensions that were running high after months of battling the pandemic.

Shortly after 11 pm, summit host Charles Michel's spokesman Barend Leyts tweeted that the plenary meeting had finished for the night and would reconvene at noon (1000 GMT) on Sunday.

Two full days and one night of discussions by the bloc's 27 leaders oscillated between raw irritation over how the huge sums should be spent and what strings should be attached to a glimmer of hope that somehow a deal could materialise - if not this weekend, then at least within a few weeks.

The summit was supposed to end Saturday but more negotiations lay ahead for leaders as they dealt with their toughest crisis in years, one that has burdened the bloc with its worst recession ever.

The pandemic has sent the EU into a tailspin, with 27-nation bloc’s economy estimated to contract 8.3% this year, according to the latest predictions. Around 135,000 of its citizens have died from COVID-19.

The EU executive has proposed a 750-billion euro fund, partly based on common borrowing, to be sent as loans and grants to the most needy countries.

That comes on top of the seven-year 1-trillion-euro EU budget that leaders were fighting over even before COVID-19 slammed their continent.

There were deep rifts between some richer nations in the north which want strict controls on spending, and struggling southern nations like Spain and Italy, which have been especially hit hard by the pandemic and are looking for as much help as they can get.

Michel's latest proposals reduce the proportion of grants in the rescue package and raise the proportion of loans that will need to be paid back, in an apparent enticement for a group of “frugal” nations led by the Netherlands, said an EU diplomat, who requested anonymity because the talks were still ongoing.