14 2GM Tuesday July 21 2020 | the times
News
European Union leaders were spending
their fourth night in succession locked
in acrimonious brinkmanship over a
€750 billion coronavirus recovery fund
in an atmosphere that Angela Merkel
described as “incredibly tough”.
The German chancellor arrived at
yesterday’s session expressing hope
that a deal could be found after angry
exchanges the previous night, when
President Macron had likened Mark
Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, to
David Cameron.
European leaders are deeply divided
over the size and workings of the pan-
demic fund, which will be underpinned
by an unprecedented level of common
debt held in the EU budget.
Mr Rutte, leader of one of the four
“frugal” countries seeking to attach
conditions to the EU handout, faced
accusations of endangering the deal.
Mr Macron, who has led the charge
for the pandemic recovery fund,
accused him and Sebastian Kurz, the
Austrian chancellor, of “egotism” and
personally threatening the existence of
the EU itself.
Diplomats said that the French
leader threatened to walk out of the
summit, alongside Mrs Merkel, unless
the Dutch and Austrian leaders
accepted Franco-German proposals.
He told Mr Rutte that he would “end
badly” like Mr Cameron, whose battles
with the EU were blamed for the Brexit
referendum result in 2016. “You are
taking the place of the United Kingdom
around this table,” he shouted.
The Dutch leader shrugged off the
criticism, saying: “We are here because
we do business for our own country.”
Charles Michel, president of the
European Council, tabled a compro-
mise package last night. “I know that
the last steps are always the most diffi-
cult but... I am convinced that an
agreement is possible,” he said.
The scheduled two-day EU summit,
which began on Friday became the
Billionaire tycoons and government
officials in Russia have been given the
opportunity to receive an experimental
state-backed Covid-19 vaccine.
Business owners, executives at top
companies and officials began getting
shots as early as April, the Bloomberg
news agency reported, citing people
familiar with the scheme.
Last week the security services of
Britain, the United States and Canada
claimed that Russian intelligence was
trying to hack into research on corona-
virus vaccines in the three countries.
Moscow denied the accusation.
The Russian vaccine is being
developed by the state-run Gamaleya
Institute in Moscow and is financed by
the Russian Direct Investment Fund, a
sovereign wealth fund.
A researcher familiar with the work
told Bloomberg that the programme
allowing the country’s elite to be guinea
Billionaires are vaccine guinea pigs
pigs was legal but kept under wraps to
avoid a rush of potential participants.
In first-phase tests the vaccine was
tried on about 40 soldiers; larger-scale
trials have since begun. The scheme for
businesspeople and bureaucrats is not
part of the official clinical study, but the
recipients are monitored and their
results are recorded.
Dmitry Peskov, President Putin’s
spokesman, said that the president had
not been inoculated because the
vaccine had not yet been certified. “He’s
the head of state after all; it wouldn’t be
very good to use an uncertified
vaccine.”
Mr Peskov, who is also Mr Putin’s
deputy chief of staff, said that he knew
there were volunteers trying out vacci-
nes in Russia but he was not aware if
any of them were from the presidential
administration. He said that he did not
need a shot because he had already had
Covid-19, a fact he confirmed in May.
People said to have received the vac-cine include executives at Rusal, the
aluminium giant founded by the
oligarch Oleg Deripaska, 52, who is
worth an estimated £2.4 billion. It was
unclear if Mr Deripaska had received
the inoculation.
Bloomberg confirmed dozens of
participants of the hundreds thought to
have taken part but none agreed to be
identified. They were not charged to
take part and it was unclear how they
were chosen. Some experienced no
side-effects while others reported fever
and muscle aches. Alexander Gints-
burg, director of the Gamaleya Insti-
tute, said that he had no knowledge of
big businessmen receiving the vaccine.
Russia registered 5,940 new corona-
virus infections yesterday, bringing the
country’s official number of cases to
777,486, the fourth highest in the world;
12,427 people have died.
The vaccine is expected to be ready
for national distribution in Russia by
September.Tom Parfitt Moscow
EU leaders split
for fourth night
on recovery deal
Bruno Waterfield Brussels longest ever EU summit at midnight
last night, beating 85 hours of talks held
in Nice almost 20 years ago
Rifts over how to pay for a pandemic
recovery fund have revealed deep
levels of mistrust between many Euro-
pean governments over the prospect of
increased EU contributions or the
Brussels strings attached to funding.
Mr Macron, in alliance with Ger-
many, is pushing for the bulk of the
fund to be paid out as grants rather than
loans meaning that governments will
not have to pay the money back.
Italy, Spain and France are the EU
countries worst hit by coronavirus.
The Netherlands, Austria, Denmark
and Sweden have opposed the plan,
which needs the unanimous agreement
of all 27 EU governments, because of
concerns that funding will be paid out
without strict conditions on complet-
ing economic reforms.
The countries are additionally con-
cerned that the plans will lead to big in-
creases in EU budget contributions and
that €390 billion in funding payments
will never be paid back.
Hopes were raised of a breakthrough,
with a compromise proposal that gives
EU governments the power to block
payments if promised reforms are not
implemented. “There were extremely
tense moments,” Mr Macron said. “And
there will be more that will still be diffi-
cult. But things have moved forward.”
As EU leaders met amid expecta-
tions of finding an agreement between
the French-led camp and Mr Rutte’s
allies, a new front opened up in the
battle as central and eastern European
governments rejected calls that all EU
funding payments would be tied to
“rule of law” standards.
Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish
prime minister, said that he would veto
any compromise that included the con-
trol clause. “For it to be acceptable, we
must obtain what we’ve asked for from
the beginning: no discretionary powers
for EU bodies, EU institutions regard-
ing the rule of law,” he said.
Global cases 14,348,
Global deaths 603,World update
Countries reporting
most deathsSource: WHOUS 3,685,460 139,468 421
Brazil 2,074,860 78,772 371
UK 295,372 45,312 667
Mexico 338,913 38,888 302
Italy 244,434 35,045 580
France 164,247 30,046 460
Spain 260,255 28,420 608
India 1,118,043 27,497 20
Iran 273,788 14,188 169
Peru 349,500 12,998 394
Russia 777,486 12,427 85
Belgium 63,893 9,800 846
Germany 201,823 9,086 108
Canada 109,999 8,848 234
Chile 330,930 8,503 445
Colombia 190,700 6,516 128
Netherlands 51,670 6,129 358
Sweden 77,281 5,619 556
Pakistan 265,083 5,599 25
Turkey 219,641 5,491 65
Ecuador 74,013 5,313 301
South Africa 364,328 5,033 85
China 86,068 4,653 3
Egypt 87,775 4,302 42
Indonesia 86,521 4,143 15
Iraq 92,530 3,781 94
Bangladesh 204,525 2,618 16Cases DeathsDeaths/
1m popMost new cases1311 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 910
37
73US
India
Brazil
South Africa
Colombia
Mexico
Russia
Guatemala
Peru
Argentina
UK
China13,
8,
7,6 1 5
5,
4,
3,
3,
58028,66,
40,Reported new casesNews Coronavirus
Sailors stranded at sea can
denmark
Merchant sailors stranded on
boats at sea will be allowed to
reunite with their friends and
families. About 200,000 sailors
have been marooned on ships,
some for a year, because travel
restrictions made it almost
impossible to rotate crews.
Maritime welfare charities had
warned of more suicides at sea.
Sailors will be granted visas to
travel through Denmark in
controlled settings. Upon landing
in Denmark, home to Maersk, the
world’s biggest container shipping
group, seafarers will be isolated in
hotels. Airports will establish
transit areas to avoid contact with
other people.russia
The mayor of Norilsk has resigned
after accusing regional officials ofunderestimating coronavirus
figures. The departure of Rinat
Akhmetchin, mayor of the Siberian
city of 175,000 people, came as
President Putin boasted on a trip to
Crimea that the Covid-19 cases and
deaths are far lower in Russia than
in many European countries. Mr
Akhmetchin had claimed that there
had been 832 confirmed cases in
Norilsk while the regional health
ministry gave the figure as 293.pakistan
Inoculation teams have restarted a
polio vaccination campaign after a
four-month pause. Health officials
feared that the hiatus, caused by
coronavirus restrictions, would
lead to a surge in polio cases.
Pakistan and neighbouring
Afghanistan are the only two
countries where polio remains
endemic. Inoculation teams in both