Following a meeting in Budapest, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his Polish counterpart, Mateusz Morawiecki, said in a joint declaration that EU budget conditionality would weaken, not strengthen the rule of law in the EU.
According to MTI, the two prime ministers said the planned mechanism was open to political abuse, adding the conditions proposed were not in accordance with the EU treaties and set out definitions of the rule of law that were “broad and vague”.
At the same time, the two leaders emphasized their countries’ commitment to European core values. Hungary will not accept any proposal on the European Union’s next multi-year budget and post-pandemic recovery fund that Poland deems unacceptable. “So we will spend the coming months … fighting together,” PM Orbán said.
Linking the political debate concerning the rule of law and the economic issue of managing the coronavirus crisis was “irresponsible”, he said, arguing that a crisis required swift economic decision-making. Managing the crisis should not require drafting rule-of-law regulations, PM Orbán said. The next EU budget, on the other hand, cannot legally be approved without Hungary and Poland’s support, he noted.
Photo credit: Origo