A marathon European Union summit has broken up temporarily in the fourth day of acrimonious haggling over an unprecedented 1.85 trillion-euro (US$2.1 trillion) EU budget and coronavirus recovery fund to tackle the crisis. The weary leaders were scheduled to resume the meeting Monday afternoon.
The summit of the 27 EU leaders began Friday and was scheduled to end Saturday. Instead deep ideological differences between leaders forced the talks into Sunday and then through the night to Monday morning.
"Are the 27 EU leaders capable of building European unity and trust or, because of a deep rift, will we present ourselves as a weak Europe, undermined by distrust," he asked the leaders at the end of another day of divisive negotiations. The text of the behind-closed-doors speech was obtained by The Associated Press.
Even with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron negotiating as the closest of partners, the traditionally powerful Franco-German alliance could not get the bloc's 27 quarreling nations in line. All nations agree they need to band together but the five richer countries in the north, led by the Netherlands, want strict controls on spending, while struggling southern nations like Spain and Italy say those conditions should be kept to a minimum.
Rutte has long been known as a European bridge builder, but this weekend his tough negotiating stance is being blamed for holding up a deal. He and his allies are pushing for labour market and pension reforms to be linked to EU handouts and a "brake" enabling EU nations to monitor and, if necessary, halt projects that are being paid for by the recovery fund.
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