BUDAPEST (AP) — The leaders of Hungary and Poland vowed Thursday to uphold their veto of the European Union’s next budget — and its massive pandemic relief fund — saying a mechanism that ties payment of funds to rule of law principles risks derailing the bloc.
The EU has proposed a mechanism linking the bloc’s 1.8 trillion-euro ($2.1 trillion) budget and coronavirus recovery package to its members' respect of the rule of law.
The mechanism would allow for funds to be denied to Poland and Hungary, which are at loggerheads with Brussels over their rule of law standards. The two countries vetoed the mechanism last week, effectively stalling progress on the implementation of the whole budget and rescue package, planned for January.
Their prime ministers, Viktor Orban and Mateusz Morawiecki, met in Budapest to discuss ways of persuading EU leaders to abandon the new financial mechanism.
This is not the right way to go," Poland's Morawiecki said about the new mechanism, stressing it is not written into EU founding treaties.
“This is extremely dangerous for Europe’s cohesion, it is a bad solution that threatens a breakup of Europe in the future,” Morawiecki told a news conference.
He argued that similar exclusive mechanisms could be used in the future against other countries, over other issues.
With the veto "We are defending the unity of the union,” Morawiecki said.
Hungary's Orban said the EU debate over the rule of law must not be tied to ways of overcoming the economic crisis.
"Whoever links them is irresponsible, because the crisis needs fast economic decisions,” Orban said.
He said he was acting in his nation's interest by opposing the financial mechanism, saying it violated Hungary’s national values and sovereignty.
Orban said the debate was not about the rule of law but about the “rule of the majority” and vowed to back Poland in opposing any mechanisms that Warsaw found unacceptable. Budapest and Warsaw have previously backed each other in opposing some decisions taken by Brussels, including on migrant policy.
In their joint statement, the two leaders rejected any mechanism that would financially sanction member states for violating democratic standards.
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