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Budapest and Warsaw vetoed the adoption of the 1.1 trillion euro
2021-2027 EU budget and the 750 billion euro recovery fund on
Monday because the budget law included a clause which makes
access to money conditional on respecting the rule of law.
"There is so much money involved which so many countries in the
European Union need and are waiting for, that we not only need a
solution but we need it quickly," said German Foreign Minister
Heiko Maas, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency. "I
am sure that we will be able to do that."
He echoed comments on Monday by Frances Europe minister, Clement
Beaune, who said: "A solution will be found in the coming
weeks."
The nationalist governments in Budapest and Warsaw used their
vetoes because they are under a formal EU process investigating
them for undermining the independence of courts, media and
non-governmental organisations.
If the link is introduced, they risk losing access to tens of
billions of euros in EU funds. Poland is to get at least some
133 billion euros from the EU under the budget and recovery
plans and Hungary around 41 billion euros, one of the highest
per capita cash inflows in the 27-member EU.
They have a strong hand, because the budget and the recovery
fund require unanimous support. Without it, no EU country will
receive any EU money in coming years, including Poland and
Hungary themselves, who are large net beneficiaries of EU funds.
But removing the link is not an option either as a large group
of countries, led by the Netherlands, and the European
Parliament refuse to approve the budget without it.
The Polish government said it was waiting for proposals from the
German presidency, and Polish media quoted unnamed ruling party
officials as saying Warsaw wanted the link diluted, if it cannot
be removed altogether.
The opposition to the 1.8 trillion package is likely to be
discussed during an EU leaders' call on Thursday that was
supposed to be devoted to coordinating the EU response to the
pandemic, but no decisions are expected then, officials said.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Poland's de facto
ruler, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, face strong domestic pressures and
see a battle with the EU over what they define as sovereignty as
helping them regain falling domestic support.
Some opinion polls show backing for Poland's ruling party fell
10 points in recent months over a number of issues, a trend
which the right wing of the governing coalition wants to exploit
to gain influence.
In Hungary, Orban faces an election in 2022 and trails the
opposition in opinion polls for the first time in over a decade
because of the pandemic and its effects on the economy.
(Additional reporting by Krisztina Than and Marton Dunai in
Budapest; Sabine Siebold, Kirsti Knolle in Berlin and Marcin
Goclowski and Pawel Florkiewicz in Warsaw; Reporting by Jan
Strupczewski; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Timothy Heritage)
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