EU leaders seal deal on spending and €750bn Covid-19 recovery plans

Euro rises as heads of state finally thrash out agreement on day five

Explainer: what has been agreed and why was it so difficult?

EU leaders have reached a historic agreement on a €750bn coronavirus pandemic recovery fund and their long-term spending plans following days of acrimonious debate at the bloc’s longest summit in nearly two decades.

As the meeting reached its fifth day, the 27 exhausted heads of state and government finally gave their seal of approval to a plan for the EU to jointly borrow debt to be disbursed through grants on an unprecedented scale, in the face of an economic downturn not seen since the Great Depression.

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