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Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán remains stubborn in the budget dispute with the European Union (EU). Along with Poland, Hungary will maintain the veto, Orbán announced on state radio. For almost three weeks, both countries have been blocking the EU’s trillion budget; this can only be approved unanimously by the 27 EU member states.
Orbán and his Polish colleague Mateusz Morawiecki are faced with a new clause that applies to the budget. Consequently, EU recipient countries can reduce funding in the event of certain violations of the rule of law. With his No, the entire budget package of € 1.8 trillion is locked in for the next seven years for now. That includes € 750 billion in aid from the crown, which many EU countries urgently need.
Prime Minister Orbán said his country could not yet accept a link between the budget and the rule of law. “Hungary insists that these two things must be separated.” On Thursday, Poland was willing to give up the veto if the EU makes a statement on the rule of law. Orbán also rejects it.
Poland and Hungary could leave empty-handed
The clause deals with the rule of law, such as the independence of the judiciary and the media. Hungary and Poland have been criticized for their dealings with the judiciary and the media for years. They should also receive funds from the Corona relief fund.
Meanwhile, the EU Commission is examining specific models for starting the multibillion-dollar Corona reconstruction fund without the two countries. This was confirmed by EU circles on Thursday night in Brussels. The commission made it clear that the other 25 EU countries would launch the € 750 billion crown reconstruction package without Poland and Hungary if the two countries uphold their veto, which economic commissioner Paolo Gentiloni publicly confirmed on Friday. . Warsaw and Budapest wouldn’t get a penny out of the pot. According to previous plans, Hungary should receive around six billion euros, Poland even 23 billion euros.
According to information from SPIEGEL, the commission threatens an even tougher behind-the-scenes measure. Given that the veto also blocks the next seven-year EU budget, which will apply from 2021, the Commission is already working on an emergency budget for 2021. In an interview with the leaders of the EU Parliament, he said the president of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, according to the participants. that his authority could withhold 50 to 75 percent of the structural funds that are particularly important to Poland and Hungary from next year.
Confusion about Poland’s veto position
This is probably one of the reasons why Polish Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Gowin initially indicated after a meeting with representatives of the EU Commission that his country would abandon its veto. That seems to be off the table again: On Friday, government spokesman Piotr Muller tweeted that the Polish position had not changed, with the threat of a veto from Poland still on the table.
This may also be due to the compromise that Gowin had put into play: the other EU states issue a statement ensuring that the rule of law mechanism “is not used to exert unjustified pressure on individual member states.” The so-called protocol statement has been considered a possible compromise solution for some time. However, it would not affect the regulation on which the rule of law mechanism is based and therefore would not be binding, especially before the Court of Justice of the European Communities.
This is also a problem for Hungary. “The solution of pasting a statement as a reminder on paper will not work for us,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told a radio station. Hungary insists that the rule of law and the budget remain separate from each other.
