Dutch Prime Minster Mark Rutte rejected a compromise proposal put forward by the chairman of EU leaders’ talks late on Friday to overcome differences over a planned coronavirus economic recovery fund for the bloc, an EU official said.
The chairman, Charles Michel, then decided to end the first day of talks among the 27 EU leaders after some 13 hours of talks failed to narrow their differences over how to finance recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
Member states would put forward their national plans to get money from the new fund, proposed at 750 billion euros, and Rutte demanded that a single member state could veto projects by forward by others.