NPR: E.U. Leaders Meet In Hopes Of Closing Divisions Over COVID-19 Relief Package
“European Union leaders were going into their first face-to-face meeting in months on Friday, hoping to hammer out details of a 1.85 trillion euro ($2.1 trillion) E.U. budget and COVID-19 recovery plan amid a global pandemic that has touched off the worst recession in the bloc’s history. The urgency of the crisis has caused the leaders of the 27-nation grouping to abandon a series of video conference summits in favor of looking one another in the eyes — albeit from across a large room. The E.U. is deeply divided between members eager for a proposed 750 billion euro ($855 billion) stimulus package to offset the economic pain of the pandemic, such as Spain and Italy, and northern European nations whose economies have been less affected…” (Neuman, 7/17).

Devex: Missing: €5B in humanitarian aid (Chadwick, 7/17).

New York Times: It’s Merkel’s Last Rodeo. Will a Pandemic Rescue Deal Seal Her Legacy? (Erlanger, 7/16).

Wall Street Journal: ECB Leaves Monetary Stimulus Unchanged as It Assesses Pandemic’s Economic Pain (Fairless/Hannon, 7/16).

Washington Post: Coronavirus has weakened the West’s nationalists (Tharoor, 7/17).

Washington Post: 27 world leaders will meet in the same room Friday after months of Zoom diplomacy (Birnbaum, 7/16).

Washington Post: Angela Merkel is riding high as she steers Europe’s coronavirus recovery effort (Morris, 7/16).