BRUSSELS: Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that EU leaders may fail to reach an agreement on Sunday on a huge post-virus recovery plan for the shattered European economy.
Arriving for the third and what she said was probably the “decisive” day of an extraordinary European summit, Merkel said the 27 leaders had “many positions” on the size of the fund, on rules for accessing it and on tying it to respect for the rule of law.
“I still can’t say whether a solution will be found,” she said. “There is a lot of good will... but it may also be that no result will be achieved today.”
Merkel was due to join French President Emmanuel Macron and the president of the European Council, summit host Charles Michel, to prepare a new offer to break the logjam after Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his “Frugal Five” allies blocked a deal.
Michel had proposed a 750-billion-euro package of EU loans and grants to help member states recover from a historic coronavirus recession, but Austria sees the package as too big and the Netherlands wants member states to be able to veto national spending plans.
The rest of the 27 EU leaders were due to meet again in the full summit format from noon (1000 GMT) and talks could yet go late into the night.
EU recovery summit could end with no deal, says Merkel
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EU recovery summit could end with no deal, says Merkel
- Summit host Charles Michel had proposed a 750-billion-euro package of EU loans and grants to help member states recover from a historic coronavirus recession
Italian police fire tear gas as protesters clash near Winter Olympics hockey venue
- Police vans behind a temporary metal fence secured the road to the athletes’ village, but the protest veered away, continuing on a trajectory toward the Santagiulia venue
MILAN: Italian police fired tear gas and a water cannon at dozens of protesters who threw firecrackers and tried to access a highway near a Winter Olympics venue on Saturday.
The brief confrontation came at the end of a peaceful march by thousands against the environmental impact of the Games and the presence of US agents in Italy.
Police held off the violent demonstrators, who appeared to be trying to reach the Santagiulia Olympic ice hockey rink, after the skirmish. By then, the larger peaceful protest, including families with small children and students, had dispersed.
Earlier, a group of masked protesters had set off smoke bombs and firecrackers on a bridge overlooking a construction site about 800 meters (a half-mile) from the Olympic Village that’s housing around 1,500 athletes.
Police vans behind a temporary metal fence secured the road to the athletes’ village, but the protest veered away, continuing on a trajectory toward the Santagiulia venue. A heavy police presence guarded the entire route.
There was no indication that the protest and resulting road closure interfered with athletes’ transfers to their events, all on the outskirts of Milan.
The demonstration coincided with US Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Milan as head of the American delegation that attended the opening ceremony on Friday.
He and his family visited Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” closer to the city center, far from the protest, which also was against the deployment of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to provide security to the US delegation.
US Homeland Security Investigations, an ICE unit that focuses on cross-border crimes, frequently sends its officers to overseas events like the Olympics to assist with security. The ICE arm at the forefront of the immigration crackdown in the US is known as Enforcement and Removal Operations, and there is no indication its officers are being sent to Italy.
At the larger, peaceful demonstration, which police said numbered 10,000, people carried cardboard cutouts to represent trees felled to build the new bobsled run in Cortina. A group of dancers performed to beating drums. Music blasted from a truck leading the march, one a profanity-laced anti-ICE anthem.
“Let’s take back the cities and free the mountains,” read a banner by a group calling itself the Unsustainable Olympic Committee. Another group called the Association of Proletariat Excursionists organized the cutout trees.
“They bypassed the laws that usually are needed for major infrastructure project, citing urgency for the Games,” said protester Guido Maffioli, who expressed concern that the private entity organizing the Games would eventually pass on debt to Italian taxpayers.
Homemade signs read “Get out of the Games: Genocide States, Fascist Police and Polluting Sponsors,” the final one a reference to fossil fuel companies that are sponsors of the Games. One woman carried an artificial tree on her back decorated with the sign: “Infernal Olympics.”
The demonstration followed another last week when hundreds protested the deployment of ICE agents.
Like last week, demonstrators Saturday said they were opposed to ICE agents’ presence, despite official statements that a small number of agents from an investigative arm would be present in US diplomatic territory, and not operational on the streets.
