Following the closing stages of the EU summit, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Hungary and Poland have succeeded in ensuring substantial funds and in protecting their national pride.
Speaking to a press conference held jointly with Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki at the Polish embassy in Brussels, PM Orbán said attempts to link EU funding to the rule of law had been “successfully thwarted”. Hungary’s standpoint, that funding and rule-of-law issues should be handled separately, had prevailed at the talks, in a “great success” for Poland and Hungary, he added.
PM Orbán said talks on the definition of rule of law will later be tabled again, he said. Hungary and Poland have shown “that it is unacceptable from nations that inherited the rule of law to criticize and lecture freedom-fighter nations that have gone through very hard times and done so much against communist regimes,” he said.
PM Orbán also noted the substantial funding allocated to the bloc’s enlargement and the integration of Western Balkan states. Morawiecki said that if the EU fails to integrate the region, Russia, Turkey and China would move into the “power vacuum” there. Regarding the rule of law, he said a “need to separate political and economic dimensions within the EU” had been made clear.
Photo credit: koronavirus.gov.hu