France's Macron: Disagreements persist among EU states

"A consensus is forming amongst Europeans on forging strategic autonomy," French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday following the EU summit on coronavirus recovery plan discussions.

Key takeaways

"Not all economic sectors will be relaunched at the same time, will be a difficult period for several months."

"The response to coronavirus by European states is asymmetric, will get worse if we don't correct it."

"EU coronavirus crisis response requires real budget transfers, not just loans."

"We need a European response to the crisis as soon as possible, and as strong as possible."

"We need a response worth at least 5 to 10 percentage points of GDP."

"Disagreements persist among EU states."

"Not the question of mutualised debt that is an obstacle, but the issue of budget transfers over loans."

"Europe has no future if we cannot find a response to this exceptional shock."