French President Emmanuel Macron has accused the Prime Minister of the Netherlands of taking ‘Brexit Britain’s obstructive role’ at EU summits, as talks over a massive coronavirus rescue fund stretched into a fourth straight day on Monday.
The French President snapped as tensions flared in tough negotiations over the plans for a €750 bn coronavirus stimulus package and bolstered €1.1 trillion EU Budget for seven years from 2021.
The package is backed by France, Germany, Spain, Italy and others but resisted by the “frugal four” of the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden and Denmark, who were joined by Finland on Sunday.
The Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, and his allies are demanding more oversight of payments from the rescue fund, more of the cash to be loans rather than non-repayable grants and for the Budget to be slimmed down.
Mr Macron accused Mr Rutte of behaving like David Cameron, the former British prime minister who would often boast of “battling for Britain” in Brussels.
Before threatening to walk from the talks rather than make a bad deal, Mr Macron bashed the table and attacked Sebastian Kurz for leaving the negotiations to take a phone call.
The Austrian chancellor was described as offended by one source after Mr Macron said, “You see? He doesn’t care. He doesn’t listen to others.”
A French source said accounts of the outburst were “a little caricatured” but said Mr Macron had “taken a hard line on their inconsistencies.”
The Dutch PM said on Monday morning that “on the whole” progress was being made at the near record length summit.
“We’re not here to be invited to each other’s birthdays for the rest of our lives,” he said.
The ‘frugals’ see €350 billion euros as the maximum and discussions over grants have narrowed with Mr Michel saying they €390 billion euros combined with smaller rebates on EU Budgets.
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Editor-in-Chief | Carl D. Pearson has been involved in British politics and media from an early age, with the key knowledge of what it takes to run a news organisation for the 21st century. Mr Pearson, as Editor-in-chief, is responsible for supervising the daily tasks of publishing media and content to UNN’s website and various platforms.
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