DEAL - EU budget for next 7 years agreed, as well as Green Recovery deal.

by michael rogers

 

European Council President Charles Michel makes a statement prior to a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels on July 20, 2020 after 4 days of talks

Deal!

EU leaders agreed early Tuesday on a groundbreaking plan to jointly borrow €750 billion to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed 135,000 people around the bloc and sent economies across the Continent into a tailspin.

The EU's recovery fund, to be composed of €390 billion in grants and €360 billion in loans, will be attached to a new €1.074 trillion seven-year budget, the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), on which heads of state and government also reached unanimous agreement — bringing the total financial package to €1.82 trillion.

The deal was clinched at 5:30 a.m.this morning, capping a summit that went into a fifth day and became one of the longest in EU history.

European Council President Charles Michel heralded the agreement with a one-word tweet: "Deal!" he wrote.

This means planning for the next R&D Framework programme can continue apace, as well as specific new fiscal tools and initiatives for the Commission and Member Sates to deal with the unprecedented COVID19 outbreak.