A marathon EU summit called to set the bloc's next seven-year budget ended in impasse late Friday after the 27 member countries failed to find common ground, leaders said. Differences were "still too great to reach an agreement," German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters at the end of the two days of talks. She said no date had yet been set for another summit to try again, but added "we are going to have to return to the subject" of the budget, the multiannual financial framework, that is meant to be operational from next year. "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. Michel was speaking at a separate briefing alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The summit revealed stubborn differences between a handful of wealthy "frugal" states and a larger group wanting more money to meet big European ambitions on top of covering a budget shortfall left by Brexit. Von der Leyen said the disagreement was a sign of EU "democracy". "It's worth it to work hard to move forward," she said. rmb/lc