France will fight to preserve "bold" Commission recovery plan - Elysee

France will fight to ensure the European Commission's plan to issue 750 billion euros in grants and loans to help EU countries recover from their coronavirus slump is not reduced, an official at President Emmanuel Macron's office said on Wednesday. "It would clearly not be desirable to cut the amount proposed by the Commission, especially the amount of grants, and we will fight very firmly on that front," the adviser said, calling the Commission's proposal "bold" and "brave".

"That is obviously the absolute priority. The joint debt mechanism to fund the grants is absolutely essential too," the adviser added. The EU's executive unveiled a 750 billion euro plan to prop up economies hammered by the coronavirus crisis, hoping to end months of squabbling over how to fund a recovery that has exposed faultlines across the 27-nation bloc.

It includes 500 billion euros in grants, which is in line with the wishes of the EU's two biggest economies, France and Germany, which came up with a grants-only proposal last week. A group of four self-styled "frugal" countries wants loans instead.