1/ Just before sunrise today, @eucopresident tweeted that the EU27 leaders had reached an agreement on the #NextGenerationEU recovery package and the #EUbudget for 2021 - 2027.

Making it the second longest #EUCO in EU history, 25 mins shy of the record set in Nice in 2000. https://twitter.com/eucopresident/status/1285417032561852418
2/ At the heart of talks was the question of grants or loans in the #NextGenerationEU fund.

Originally the fund was to make available €440b in grants and €250b in loans. The fund aims to support Member States, boost private investment and reinforce key EU programmes.
3/ Reports indicated that the informal grouping of the ‘frugal four’ - Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden - had hoped to see the size of grants in the fund reduced to below €400 billion.
4/ To ensure agreement on the issue of grants, on Monday, @eucopresident Charles Michel proposed a grant package of €390 billion with increased rebates - discounts applied to budget contributions - for the ‘frugal four’.
5/ Ultimately, on Tuesday, an agreement was reached on a €390b for grants (instead of original €440b) and €360bn in low-interest loans (instead of €250bn).

Central to the agreement was the inclusion of increased rebates for the ‘frugals’.
6/ A further issue of disagreement between EU leaders was that of a governance mechanism intended to ensure that Member States meet the requirements for receiving money from the COVID- 19 recovery fund.
7/ In terms of governance, Dutch Prime Minister Rutte was able to secure an ‘emergency brake’ enabling Member States to temporarily halt the transfers of funds if other Member States fail to honour obligations to economic reform.

The ‘emergency brake’ is, however, time limited.
8/ One further hurdle in talks involved tying funding to democratic standards. These rule-of-law conditions were opposed by certain Member States, notably Poland and Hungary.

However, these conditions were heavily diluted in the final agreement after several rounds of talks.
9/ Finally, the reason that this was the longest #EUCO since Nice Treaty talks in 2000, was the determination of all to reach an agreement together.

🇪🇺🤝
10/ This week’s deal is a key test of EU cohesion, that resulted in historic stimulus pact for EU citizens, where for the first time, the EU’s 27 leaders have agreed to establish a federal deficit as an instrument of macroeconomic crisis management https://www.ft.com/content/b16ea218-d520-47ab-bab2-bbd4041059b8
11/ As French President @EmmanuelMacron summed up: https://twitter.com/EmmanuelMacron/status/1285417491687243778?s=20
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