Brussels, Feb 22 (AFP/APP): An EU summit called to set the bloc’s next seven-year budget ended in impasse late Friday, riven by competing groups among the 27 member states and pressure to fill a funding gap left by Brexit. Differences were “still too great to reach an agreement,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters at the end of the two days of talks in Brussels. No date had yet been set for another summit to try again, but Merkel added that “we are going to have to return to the subject”. The trillion-euro-plus budget, the multiannual financial framework, is meant to be operational from next year and run to the end of 2027. But the summit revealed stubborn differences between a handful of wealthy “frugal” states and a larger group wanting more money to meet both big European ambitions and to fill the 75-billion-euro shortfall left by Britain’s exit from the EU last month. “Unfortunately we have observed it was not possible to reach an agreement, we observed we need more time,” said European Council President Charles Michel, who had called the extraordinary summit and stewarded the talks. He said, however, he was right to make the effort: “As my … Continue reading EU budget summit ends with no deal