BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Council President Charles Michel said on Wednesday that the EU needs to reach an agreement quickly on its plan for a multi-billion-euro recovery fund but much negotiation will still be needed to get there.
“I can assure you I am doing all I can to secure an agreement,” he told the European Parliament ahead of a July 17-18 summit of leaders on the recovery fund and the bloc’s next long-term budget that he will chair.
“We need to find a workable solution quickly. My impression, after a round of consultations over the last few days, is that we haven’t yet finished our negotiations and we still have a lot of work to do. I think that we can conclude that some member states want to cooperate more than others.”
(Reporting by Marine Strauss; Writing by John Chalmers)
