EU exec proposes to keep rebates in joint budget for 2021-27

The European Commission on Wednesday proposed to keep rebates in the European Union's next joint budget for 2021-27, reversing its earlier position to meet a key demand by Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Austria.

Allowing member states to keep rebates on national contributions to the bloc's joint coffers, for now, is meant at convincing the wealthier net payers to back a massive economic stimulus package the EU executive proposed on Wednesday to spur growth on the continent ravaged by a coronavirus.

The plan includes doling out hundreds of billions of euros to the hardest-hit countries like Spain and Italy, something governments in Vienna, The Hague, and elsewhere see as going too far in aiding states they deem not fiscally prudent enough.