AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Tuesday said he was pessimistic about the chances of reaching a deal over the proposed European Recovery Fund at a special summit of EU leaders set to start this Friday.
“The responses behind the scenes on our proposals do not make me hopeful about the chances to reach a deal,” Rutte said in a debate in the Dutch parliament.
Rutte said the main stumbling block was how to make sure that countries that would receive possible grants from the recovery fund would push through promised economic reforms.
(Reporting by Bart Meijer; Editing by Alex Richardson)
