Fiery meeting in Luxembourg sets the scene for more difficult negotiations in the weeks to come.
France and Germany remain at odds over the EU's plan to overhaul rules on government spending — making a bloc-wide deal by the end of the year still look some way off.
Sparks flew between EU finance ministers when they discussed the matter in Luxembourg on Tuesday. The meeting ended without any sign of breaking the stalemate.
The European Commission has made a priority of reforming the Stability and Growth Pact, designed to ensure governments don't accumulate too much debt or maintain too high a deficit. Reaching an agreement between the EU's 27 countries is urgent because the rules will be reapplied from next year after being suspended at the onset of the COVID pandemic.
While there’s agreement on the broad outline of the reform and on the need to conclude it before the Commission’s mandate ends next year, the exact nature of the overhaul remains in dispute, with Paris and Berlin at opposite ends of the argument.
At the behind-closed-doors meeting, finance ministers vented their frustration. Germany's Christian Lindner expressed dissatisfaction with the fact his demands were not reflected in the Spanish Presidency’s proposed compromise text when Italian requests were taken on board. Spanish Finance Minister Nadia Calviño, who was chairing the meeting, replied with laughter, according to two EU diplomats briefed on the talks....
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