EU summit approves compromise in budget dispute

reThe path for the disbursement of aid from the € 1.8 trillion Corona package is clear. On Thursday, the EU heads of state and government will accept the compromise on the rule of law negotiated by the German presidency with Hungary and Poland at their summit. Council President Charles Michel announced in the evening that implementation and reconstruction can now begin.

At the beginning of the meeting, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte raised the question whether the compromise negotiated by the German presidency of the EU Council with Poland and Hungary would weaken the new rule of law mechanism. But he finally gave in. Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) had previously campaigned for the compromise reached on Wednesday. “It would be a very important signal of the EU’s ability to act if we could achieve this important result,” Merkel said. Personally, he has worked very hard to find a solution to the concerns of Hungary and Poland.

The two states blocked the adoption of the Corona package because they refused to link EU aid to standards for the rule of law. Commitment does not change this link. However, it should be supplemented by a so-called interpretative declaration. Furthermore, Poland and Hungary are only threatened with cuts once the European Court of Justice has decided on a possible lawsuit. Initially, there was no agreement on the tightening of the climate target for 2030.

At the dinner, the heads of state and government also wanted to discuss new sanctions against Turkey. It was already clear in advance that new travel and property bans would be imposed due to the illegal extraction of oil and gas by Turkish ships in the Cypriot economic zone. Cyprus had nominated seven other employees of the Turkish energy company TCAO and three subsidiaries for these sanctions. According to the draft conclusions, the EU Foreign Affairs representative, Josep Borrell, is also expected to present proposals in March to “expand” the sanctions framework.