EU to meet face-to-face at summit to carve up $2.1 trillion

BRUSSELS (AP) — There are limits to videoconferencing. When there is a lot of money at stake, people like to look each other in the eye.

So on Friday, leaders from 27 European Union nations will be meeting face-to-face for the first since February despite the dangers of the coronavirus pandemic — simply to try to carve up a potential package of 1.85 trillion euros ($2.1 trillion) among themselves, and, just as importantly, see who will pay in the most.

In perhaps the first such major meeting of leaders since the COVID-19 outbreak hit the world, the stakes were just too high to maintain extreme social distancing.

“You can feel the mood, as it were," Germany's Europe minister, Michael Roth, said of such flesh-and-blood summits. “I wouldn't claim to be a psychologist, but I would say it really does help."

It had better since five remote video summits so far this year failed at bridging the financial gap between rival nations needing to agree on a more than 1-trillion-euro budget for the next seven years and a 750-billion-fund to allow nations to recover from the coronavirus crisis.

“It was already clear at Easter when I was calling, the first time, all the different capitals that such a decision can only be taken if the leaders, prime ministers, heads of state, meet in person in Brussels," EU Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn said.

French President Emmanuel Macron is already sweeping into town late Thursday, eager to get as many encounters in as possible. German Chancellor Angela Merkel holds out until the official kickoff time early Friday. Whatever happens, it will make for an EU summit unlike any other at the urn-shaped Europa headquarters.

For starters, the cozy meeting room on the top floor, where the leaders have clashed at close quarters over everything from Brexit to migration issues, will be...