EU leaders agree on more time to decide coronavirus economic rescue

BRUSSELS — European Union leaders failed to agree on Thursday on the scale of support for their economies battered by the coronavirus, but gave themselves two more weeks to work out details in a dispute between the ailing south and the fiscally conservative north. Highlighting how the pandemic is testing the bloc’s cohesion, Germany and the Netherlands blocked a call from Italy, Spain and France to issue joint debt to help finance a recovery. All 27 national EU leaders wrangled during a six-hour videoconference over setting up a credit line worth some 2% of their economic output from the European Stability Mechanism bailout fund of the 19-member single-currency zone. In the end,...