French president Emmanuel Macron was in The Hague on Tuesday evening for talks with prime minister Mark Rutte ahead of continuing negotiations about the EU’s €750bn Covid-19 recovery programme.

European leaders are due to meet face to face on July 17 and 18, after last week’s video conference failed to bring any real concrete results.

The Netherlands is under pressure from France to soften its opposition to making part of the recovery package a gift – the Netherlands is keen to see all financial aid made in the form of loans which would have to be repaid.

Goed om @EmmanuelMacron te ontvangen in Den Haag voor een tête-à-tête en werkdiner. We spraken onder meer over het voorstel van de @EU_Commission voor een herstelfonds in reactie op het coronavirus en over de meerjarenbegroting van de Europese Unie. pic.twitter.com/T9RWHsl2Eo

— Mark Rutte (@MinPres) June 23, 2020

Last week the Netherlands and its partners in the ‘frugal four’ group of European countries again reiterated their support for loans to aid economic recovery and warned that all spending must be responsible, this time in a letter in the Financial Times.

The photo moment over dinner has become somewhat of a tradition with Rutte and Macron, according to the NRC. This time the two leaders met at a restaurant in Scheveningen.