EU seals $2.1 trillion budget, virus recovery deal

After four days of intense debate, the 27 European Union leaders reached an agreement Tuesday which will include an $858 billion pandemic fund to aid some of the hardest-hit member nations. The fund will offer $446 billion in grants that require economic reforms and another $412 billion in loans. The leaders also approved a $1.2 trillion EU budget for the next seven years.

How significant is this deal? French President Emmanuel Macron called the outcome of the hard-fought deal “historic” after member nations agreed to take loans together and set up the joint recovery fund. The outbreak has killed some 135,000 EU citizens and contracted the bloc’s economy by 8.3 percent this year. The European Parliament still has to approve the deal.

Dig deeper: Read Mindy Belz’s report on how Belgium ended up with the highest COVID-19 mortality rate.