The EU’s €750bn recovery plan comes one step closer

THE PUFF of white smoke came on November 10th. After months of ill-tempered talks between governments and the European Parliament—one French MEP even went on hunger strike to protest against cuts—the two sides at last agreed on a seven-year budget for the European Union. Some hurdles remain. Rules must be thrashed out for running the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the centrepiece of the covid-19 recovery plan agreed by EU leaders in July. (This, along with the regular budget, makes up an overall €1.8trn package.) Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister, is threatening to veto the whole thing because of rule-of-law conditions attached to the budget. But officials are cautiously optimistic that an end is in sight.