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The leaders of the 27 EU member states, meeting in Brussels, managed to resolve the deadlock with Poland and Hungary, which threatened to delay the approval of a historic budget and a stimulus package worth 1.81 billion euros at the same time. where the latest wave of covid-19 infections has shaken the economies of the Old Continent.
At today’s European Council meeting, the focus was on the European Union’s multi-annual budget and stimulus plan due to the pandemic, with yesterday’s expectation of an understanding, after Hungary and Poland had signaled that finally they would be willing to abandon the veto threat made by opposing the new rule of law mechanism and thus unblock the so-called 1.8 billion euro bazooka.
Faced with the possibility of the remaining 25 Member States moving towards enhanced cooperation that would leave Budapest and Warsaw out of the crisis response package, which would be a kind of formalization of a two-speed Europe, the two countries accepted the proposal. carried out by the rotating presidency of the Council of the Union, led by Germany, to ensure a united reaction to the pandemic and avoid divisions within the European project.
Treat the #MFF and recovery package #NGEU
Now we can start implementation and rebuild our economies.
Our historic recovery package will drive our green and digital transitions. #EUCO
– Charles Michel (@eucopresident) December 10, 2020
Europe advances!#EUCO agreement on the next EU budget and #NextGenerationEU.
€ 1.8 trillion to boost our recovery and build a more resilient, greener and digital EU.
Congratulations to the German Presidency of the Council @ EU2020DE !
– Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) December 10, 2020
The European Council has now asked the European Commission to prepare a regulatory framework to guide the application of an approved instrument of this type despite Poland and Hungary, and not only the Court of Justice of the EU will have to rule on the legality of the assumptions of the mechanism. (Until such a pronouncement, the mechanism will not be applied, so the Commission will not apply the new regulations until that moment), since any Member State may go to that body in case of doubts about the application of the rules that condition access to European funds. respect for democratic rules and provision of sanctions in case of violation.
To convince the governments of Hungary and Poland, and through German mediation between these two countries and the remaining 25, the group of 27 subscribed to a political statement to clarify how the new mechanism will be applied.
While the compromise solution presented by Germany gives assurances to Budapest and Warsaw on how the mechanism will be applied, the clause on respect for the rule of law will even be included in the Community legal order.
The agreement thus opens the way for the European Union to activate not only its budget for the next seven years, but also a pandemic aid package of 750,000 million euros that will be financed with common debt, which represents a milestone for the European Bloc .
It should be recalled that Poland and Hungary rejected the fact that the new mechanism subject access to Community funds to respect for the rule of law, considering that it was designed to sanction both countries (which deals with the procedures provided for in Article 7 of the treated for violation of democratic norms).
This dispute was the culmination of years of clashes between Brussels and the two countries over issues such as political interference in the judiciary and the rights of the LGBTQ community.
According to the Berlin proposal, the issue of conditionality will not come into force until January 1 of next year and will be related to the commitments made under the new budget.
In order for the European bazooka to receive the definitive green light, the majority of national parliaments, as well as the European Parliament, will have to vote in favor, that is, the reinforcement of own resources that will allow the Commission to go to the markets for the first time . 750 billion euros of debt to finance the recovery fund.
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