The European Commission wants higher guarantees for the next long-term EU budget to back Commission borrowing for economic recovery and as a safeguard against a "hard Brexit", EU Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn said on Thursday.
Many fights lie ahead for European Union countries before they can reach unanimous agreement on the proposed 1.85 trillion euros worth of spending through their next joint budget and a new coronavirus economic recovery scheme.
Estonian Finance Minister Martin Helme, who represents a far-right party in the governing coalition of the eurozone country, said he cannot agree with the EU Commission's economic rescue plan unveiled earlier on Wednesday.
The European Union's executive unveiled a 750 billion euro plan on Wednesday to prop up economies hammered by the coronavirus pandemic, hoping to end months of squabbling over how to fund a recovery that exposed faultlines across the 27-nation bloc.
The European Commission proposed on Wednesday to borrow 750 billion euros on the market and issue grants and loans to EU countries to kick-start an economic recovery after the coronavirus pandemic.
The European Union's executive on Wednesday proposed a blueprint for the bloc's next budget and a linked coronavirus Recovery Fund to provide a massive stimulus to the continent's coronavirus-battered economy.
Negotiations on establishing a recovery fund to help the economies of EU countries that have been battered by the coronavirus crisis will not be easy, Chancellor Angela Merkel said.
From ramping up 5G's rollout to exploiting its data, the European Union is turning to technology to help it bounce back from the coronavirus crisis and compete better in key areas with the United States and China.
The European Commission unveiled on Wednesday a plan to borrow and disburse 750 billion euros ($827 billion) in grants and loans to help EU countries recover from their coronavirus slump.
The European Commission will propose on Wednesday to offer EU member states 500 billion euros in free grants and a further 250 billion euros in repayable loans as part of a new coronavirus economic recovery plan, diplomats and officials told Reuters.
The European Union's executive will propose later on Wednesday that the bloc's joint budget for 2021-27 amounts to some 1.1 trillion euros, two sources told Reuters.
The European Commission wants to mobilize 750 billion euros ($821.33 billion) for the economic recovery of Europe after the coronavirus crisis, German broadcaster n-tv on Wednesday cited sources in Brussels as saying.
The Netherlands insists that the planned European Recovery Fund should hand out financial aid for virus-hit member states only as loans rather than grants that would not have to be paid back, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Tuesday.
The European Commission will issue on Wednesday a new proposal for a long-term European Union budget and a coronavirus recovery fund to help economies in the bloc rebound from recession.
The chances of Britain's status-quo Brexit transition period ending without a trade deal at the end of the year is a risk the Irish economy needs to start preparing for, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said on Friday.
The devastating impact of the coronavirus on the euro zone economy abated a little this month as some government-imposed lockdown measures introduced to contain the spread of the virus were eased, a survey showed.
Hungary shut so-called migrant transit zones on its borders on Thursday, freeing some 300 refugees from prison-like conditions while at the same time hardening rules which will effectively bar future asylum applicants.
Euro zone consumer confidence rose by 3.2 points in May from the April number, figures released on Wednesday showed.
Britain's proposal on Wednesday that its Brexit divorce deal would require no new customs infrastructure in Northern Ireland will be met with scepticism by many in the European Union, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said.
It took a courtroom of scarlet-robed judges to spur Angela Merkel to make one of her boldest moves in 15 years as German chancellor: propose huge cash handouts to the European Union's weaker economies.