EU countries nudged towards an agreement on a mass stimulus scheme to kickstart economies hammered by the coronavirus but disagreements persisted over the scale and access to funds before Friday’s summit. The 27 national EU heads will meet face-to-face for the first time since COVID-19 pushed Europe into a sweeping lockdown. They will haggle over their next budget proposed at 1.074 trillion euros ($1.22 trillion) for 2021-27 and an attached recovery fund of 750 billion euros in grants and loans. The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Austria - the wealthy but thrifty net contributors to the bloc’s joint ... (full story)