Some time into Sunday evening, the heads of state and government had not yet sat down around the table together.

- There are still differences between the countries, I must honestly admit that. But personally, I think it is possible to find a solution, said Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin early on Sunday evening, according to the Finnish news agency STT.

She added that she was ready to continue until Monday, but emphasized that she still considered that too much of the corona crisis support to the EU countries was proposed to go out as a grant. At the same time, she warned that a breakdown now will not make it easier to agree on a new meeting.

"It may well be that that attempt may be even more difficult," said Marin.

According to TT, the four frugal countries Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark and Austria, or the stingy people as their opponents call them, have made it clear that they can accept a corona crisis package of a total of 700 billion euros, with half as a grant and half as a loan.

The original proposal from Charles Michel, President of the European Council, and the European Commission was 750 billion, with 500 of them as grants and 250 as loans.

Wants to reduce contributions

Finland does not formally belong to the "frugal four". On Sunday, Marin still participated in several meetings with the "stingy quartet".

European Council President Charles Michel is expected to present a new compromise plan to the leaders of the 27 EU countries on Sunday. When, however, is unclear, the meeting was supposed to resume at lunch but the time was moved forward several times. The latest bid was at 6pm for EU leaders to have dinner at 7pm.

"During my seven years as leader, I have rarely seen such diametrically different views on so many things," said Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel on his way to the meeting building in central Brussels.