EU leaders squabble as deadlocked rescue summit enters third day

For two days, the Netherlands and its "frugal" allies have resisted the pleas of Germany and France, the bloc's most powerful members, to agree a plan to lift the countries hardest hit by the pandemic -- most notably Spain and Italy. The Dutch had demanded that member states wield a veto over national bailouts to ensure countries carry out labour market reforms, and Austria, Finland, Denmark and Sweden want to see the up to 750-billion-euro package of loans and subsidies cut down to size. A French diplomatic source said that President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel refused pressure by Rutte and his allies to cut the grants in the scheme to below 400 billion euros ($460 billion).