The agreement was reached on the sidelines of the meeting, during several hours of negotiations led by the Portuguese Mário Centeno. An approximation of some last-minute details has enabled concerted positions for ministers to announce a “bold and ambitious plan to protect our economies in response to this common threat”, as Centeno intended.
The plan involves a compromise reached between Germany, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands, which allowed to break the impasse. The halfway meeting allowed Italy to drop the requirement that loans be made in exchange for no conditions. On the other hand, Dutch Minister Wopke Hoekstra gives up intransigence regarding the conditions associated with loans from the European Stability Mechanism.
Read more in Portuguese in Diário de Notícias.