Hungary and Poland managed to block the approval of the EUR 1.1 trillion budget and EUR 750 billion recovery package as the vote required unanimous support from all EU members.
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Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has informed the German presidency of the Council of the European Union, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel that the Hungarian government will veto legislation related to the EUʼs 2021-2027 budget and the recovery fund, the PMʼs press chief told MTI on Monday.
Orbán wrote in letters that Hungary would veto all elements of the legal package for the budget and the Next Generation EU recovery and resilience facility based on the principle that "there is agreement on nothing as long as there is not agreement on everything".
Press chief Bertalan Havasi noted that the PM had earlier warned that linking payouts from the seven-year budget and the recovery fund to conditions that are not precisely defined could lead to arbitrary, politically-based sanctions using a double standard, putting confidence among EU member states as well as Hungaryʼs interests at risk.
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Orbán argued that common values such as the rule of law, are fundamental for Hungary, and their application and enforcement must be a matter for Hungarians to decide, Hungarians who are just as fit for the task as any other people in Europe.
According to a report by news agency Reuters, Hungary and Poland blocked the adoption of the 2021-2027 budget and recovery fund. While the proposal linking EU money and the respect for the rule of law passed as it only required a qualified majority, Hungary and Poland managed to block the approval of the EUR 1.1 trillion budget and EUR 750 billion recovery package as the vote required unanimous support from all EU members.
In a letter to EU leaders, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki threatened to veto the EU budget if the payment of funds is made conditional on members adhering to the rule of law.
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With this expected step, he echoed previous threats by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who had stated in a letter of his own, that “Hungary is committed to cooperation, in the light of developments, it cannot provide the unanimity required for the package adopted in July.”
Both Warsaw and Budapest do oppose the mechanism, but Morawieck’s comments were less critical and literal than those by his Hungarian counterpart’s.
The rule-of-law mechanism was “based on arbitrary, politically motivated criteria” and accepting it “could lead to a legitimisation of the use of double standards” regarding the treatment of different EU members, Morawiecki said on Facebook.
He added that the “proposed solutions are incompatible with the European Council’s conclusions from July”, when EU leaders held a marathon summit where they agreed the bloc’s unprecedented virus bail-out package of grants and loans.
“That is why Poland cannot accept this version of the mechanism, which would lead to the primacy of political and arbitrary criteria over a substantive assessment,” Morawiecki said.
Morawiecki said last week that Poland would exercise its “right to protest” if no “agreement on the link between the rule of law and the EU budget” is reached.
As Polish authorities, in this case, have been hiding behind Hungary from the beginning of the discussion, Morawiecki’s comments were seen as less literal than Orban’s.
According to an EU source, the letter was “confusing”, also due to factual inaccuracies.
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