Slovak PM attends in person his first summit in Brussels

A recovery plan to respond to the COVID-19 crisis and the new long-term EU budget are the topics EU representatives are discussing on the two-day summit in Brussels (taking place 17-18 July). The orginial "Next Generation" recovery plan caused conflicts between the member states. These were acknowledged by the European Council president Charles Michel, who amended the plan. Nonetheless, the Slovak government stands by the original proposal EU made, based on which it would receive 8 billion euro.

This is also the first in person EU summit attended by the Slovak PM Igor Matovič since his appointment. On Thursday he is thus meeting for the first time the EU's top officials, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.