“Deal!” writes the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, on Twitter. And a few minutes later, he declares: “We did it, Europe is strong and united.” “This is a good deal and a good agreement,” he commented, visibly satisfied. “And it is a concrete sign that Europe is a force in action,” Michel added.
The European leaders, engaged in tough negotiations since last Friday, at 5:31 a.m. on Tuesday, after another night of talks, eyes ringed with fatigue, approved the text amid the final praises and applause at a summit fought to the last moment, which several times came close to failure and was resolved by a hair’s breadth during yet another meeting on the reforms between Conte and Rutte, led by Merkel and Macron who had written the script with their agreement from a few weeks ago and who were the directors of this summit.
The Recovery Fund is finally agreed upon: it has a budget of 750 billion euros, including 390 billion in grants. The “frugal” veto right falls, but the reform plan to access the funds will have to be approved by a qualified majority.
The extraordinary 750 billion plan to save the countries most affected by Covid from the financial crisis could, therefore, come to fruition. The money will be raised in Brussels via eurobonds. A historic step for the Union, which changes the continent’s economic policies at the conclusion of a dramatic summit that lasted five days of negotiations, exceeding in length the record of four days and four nights of talks at the Nice summit in 2000 when the enlargement of the EU to the Eastern European countries from the Soviet bloc was decided.
“This is a historic day for Europe,” comments French President Emmanuel Macron. “Europe has shown that it is capable of opening new horizons in such a particular situation,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel during the joint press conference with Macron.
“An unprecedented package,” recalls the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. “The recovery and resilience mechanism is established very clearly: it is voluntary, but those who access it must align with the European semester and the recommendations to countries.” “Until now, it was solely up to the countries to respect them or not,” she adds, “but now the recommendations are linked to potential grants and loans.”
