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The softened German proposal presented on Monday (which would link EU money and the rule of law) was voted on today by the permanent EU ambassadors of member states in Brussels and, according to Die Welt, the ambassadors of Hungary and Poland were Rejected. Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga already indicated yesterday that even the softened German proposal is unacceptable, so it is no coincidence that the attitude of the Hungarian ambassador in Brussels was rejected.
According to the German report reviewed by 24.hu not only the representatives of the Hungarian and Polish governments voted not in today’s session, but also the Dutch, Finnish, Swedish, Danish and Belgian governments, but they rejected the German proposal because it became too bland, both in terms of the conditions and in terms of its sanctioned vote. At the same time, all the other (20) Member States supported the plan and it was therefore approved by majority vote.
Based on the above developments, the attitude of both the Nordic countries and the Hungarian-Polish couple (for different reasons) indicates that the final settlement of the link between EU funds and the rule of law will be delayed, thus the corona virus recovery fund itself and 2021 will also delay the start of disbursement of EU funds in -2027.
For both Northerners and Hungarian-Polish couples, the time lag can be helpful.
The former will hopefully pay less from the already grudgingly drawn up recovery fund to southern member states, and the latter because the late start of the EU budget will increase tensions until many countries eventually soften the rule of law.
Seeing this enormous tension in the meeting It is no coincidence that in the afternoon, the head of the German presidency, Michael Clauss, spoke to Reuters and said: there are so many debates around the rule of law proposal that the agreement is slipping and sliding, so
most likely not avoided
also the slide of the European economic recovery. He indicated that there were growing fears that the debate over the link between EU money and the rule of law was so great that Negotiations on the EU budget are also “increasingly blocked”.
He noted that not only the northern Member States, but also the European Parliament were demanding a stricter rule of law than the German proposal and that the EP’s word was important because the EU budget for 2021-2027 and the recovery fund related could not be launched without his approval. sem.
What is it that will be rejected today, but will have to vote later?
The proposal put forward by the German Presidency would be a ‘normal’ EU regulation on the protection of EU money by ordinary qualified majority it can be adopted by the Council of Ministers, that is, unanimity is not formally required. As you can see, today the ambassadors of 7 Member States also voted against it, but it passed. It is important to emphasize, of course, that in the final vote on the 7-year framework budget and recovery fund, unanimity will be neededThe big question, therefore, is to what extent the Member States that have just been voted on would be willing to accept a system of conditions of the rule of law closely linked to the budget. This is precisely the danger of vetoing the Hungarian-Polish and other Member States, to which the German ambassador referred to the news agency and this is a danger that could paralyze future budget negotiations.
In essence, therefore, the German proposal has been so softened due to the veto risk already informally indicated by the Hungarian and Polish governments that it can no longer be accepted by the Northern Member States and the EP. So, in turn, she negotiated at an EU marathon summit this summer. The EU’s recovery budget and fund are increasingly likely to be elusive, slowing down the already weakened economic recovery.
In this context, a German government official also spoke to the news agency this afternoon and said that No matter how big the debates are, they want to close the budget and rule of law debates in a few weeks. Now the big question is how, at what price does it commit. To do this, it is very likely that the issue will have to be addressed again at another EU summit, because experts and ambassadors will not be able to reach the ground at lower levels. In any case, the return of the rule of law even to the Heads of State and Government was decided in the final declaration of July 21.
Otherwise, Member States are expected to receive money from the recovery fund by mid-2021 at the earliest (not including the allocation of annual advances), but if the dispute over the rule of law persists, the implementing regulations will be delayed . Implementation of the new 7-year framework can take months even compared to this. In this way, the recovery fund would no longer really aid the recovery, but would serve as a pro-cyclical stimulus.
Relevant material on the rule of law and the link between EU funds during the last two months:
Cover Image Source: Pool / Getty Images
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