€750bn, €390bn in grants to the hardest hit and €360bn in low interest loans, available to members of the EU.
The intention of this is so that they can maintain public spending although public funding has been very hard hit by lockdowns across the trade bloc.
The EU requires that the members submit their plans which will be able to be blocked by a majority of the states. This will be funded from borrowing from the international market and Britain is also not included in this because of Brexit. The deal took 5 days to reach, partly due to Britain’s exit which was a big contributor to the budget.
Many nations disagreed with the amount as well, which meant that negotiations took far longer than usual, as well as issues with a link to rule of law. This means that it could withhold funds from undemocratic countries, which Poland and Hungary threatened to veto over.
It is clear this will have a huge impact on many EU countries, whatever the outcome, and hopefully help the member states to recover after coronavirus.
Written by Anna Male
Artwork by Zara Masood
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