Dutch PM satisfied with deal on EU aid package

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he wanted a link to be made between the handout of European Union funds and the rule of law — a connection aimed at Poland and Hungary, countries with right-wing populist governments that many in the EU think are sliding away from democratic rule.

To confront the biggest recession in its history, the EU will establish a 750 billion-euro coronavirus fund, partly based on common borrowing, to be sent as loans and grants to the hardest-hit countries.

That comes on top of the seven-year, 1 trillion-euro EU budget that leaders had been haggling over for months even before the pandemic.

The days and nights of brutal summiteering will surely have left many wounds between member states, but as history has proven, the EU has an uncanny gift to quickly produce scar tissue and move on.

Even if Tuesday's agreement was a giant leap forward, the European Parliament, which has called the moves of the member states too timid considering the challenge, still has to approve the deal.

But Tuesday was a moment to revel in the achievement itself.

The coronavirus has sent the EU into a tailspin, killing around 135,000 of its citizens and plunging its economy into an estimated contraction of 8.3% this year.

The leaders mulled a proposal from the five wealthy northern nations that suggested a coronavirus recovery fund with 350 billion euros of grants and the same amount in loans.

The five northern nations — the Netherlands, Austria, Finland, Sweden and Denmark — had long opposed any grants at all, while the EU executive had proposed 500 billion euros.

The latest compromise proposal stands at 390 billion euros in grants.