German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, speaks with French President Emmanuel Macron, center, during a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, Monday, July 20. Weary European Union leaders were finally closing in on an unprecedented 1.82 trillion euro (US$2.1 trillion) budget and coronavirus recovery fund early Tuesday, finding unity after four days and as many nights of fighting and wrangling over money and power in one of their longest summits ever. To confront the biggest recession in its history, officials said the EU had as good as a consensus on a 750 billion euro coronavirus fund to be sent as loans and grants to the countries hit hardest by the virus. That comes on top of the seven-year 1 trillion euro EU budget. At first the grants were to total 500 billion euros, but the figure was brought down to 390 billion euros.

Source: The Standard July 21, 2020 02:48 UTC