No deal! EU leaders FAIL to agree on trillion euro spending plans after 28 hours of talks

They failed to make a breakthrough after a bitter dispute between EU countries wanting to turn on the spending taps and others who thought the bloc should tighten the purse strings to plug the €75 billion budgetary blackhole left by Brexit. Efforts were made to bridge the gap, but ultimately leaders decided it wasn’t worth continuing negotiations because of the vast differences in thinking. 

The mood was bleak as European Council President Charles Michel admitted the bloc “needs more time” to seal a deal on its trillion euro budget.

Critics say the EU’s most senior official failed in his preparations for the summit and tonight marks his first failure since taking over from predecessor Donald Tusk.

The former Belgian prime minister said: “We know this european budget is a very difficult topic, it’s a very difficult negotiations. Especially after Brexit and the gap between €60-75billion.

“We have worked very hard to reconcile the differences of interests and opinions around the table but we need more time.”