European Union leaders reached an agreement on Thursday for a huge long-term budget and funds to help the bloc’s battered economies recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, but critics denounced that the agreement does not penalize Hungary or to Poland for abusing the rule of law.
The budget of 1.82 trillion euros (2.21 trillion dollars) for seven years and the rescue package will take effect on January 1. Poland and Hungary backed the deal in July but subsequently vetoed it, fearing that the new “rule of law mechanism” could penalize them for possible violations of EU democratic standards.
“Now we can start implementation and rebuild our economies. Our historic rescue package will drive our green and digital transitions, ”said Council of Europe President Charles Michel in a tweet after breaking the deadlock at an EU summit he chaired in Brussels.
The deal came just days after it appeared the 25 Polish and Hungarian partners in the bloc would create a coronavirus recovery package without them, depriving them of billions of euros in assistance.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was in a good mood.
“It was a nice night. We can put the champagne to cool, “he said in a video posted on his Facebook account, adding that” common sense prevailed. “
“We managed to avoid the danger that budgetary means are used to force Hungary to make decisions that it does not want to make or accept, and in the end we defend the money of the Hungarians, which is good for economic development in the coming years,” he said .
Also on Facebook, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called the deal “a double win.”
“Now the European budget can be implemented, and Poland will receive 770,000 million zlotys (173,000 million euros). This money is insured because the conditionality mechanism has been limited by very precise criteria ”, he said.
In accordance with the negotiated solution, the European Commission will draw up guidelines for the use of the new mechanism on the rule of law and what could activate it, in which case the highest European court would intervene to determine its validity. The commission would not penalize any country until the guidelines are written.
A French official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak on the matter, said that the steps taken against a country for not maintaining the rule of law will be applicable retroactively from January 1, 2021.
French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that the leaders “adopted a robust agreement to enforce around the mechanism, in respect of the rule of law. Europe moves forward, united, and shows its values ”.
While acknowledging that national governments are desperate for funds to cope with the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, some warned of the dangers of once again delaying action against Hungary and Poland, whose nationalist governments have been accused of undermining the independence of the judiciary and freedom of the press.
Daniel Freund, negotiator for the Green group in the European Parliament on the rule of law, warned that the solution negotiated in the talks would put the system “on hold for 1 or 2 years.”
“The rule of law in Europe is in crisis,” he said, and considered that the members of the bloc should not be pressuring the European Commission to avoid applying “existing laws while judicial independence is abolished in Poland or billions of dollars. EU funds go to Orban’s family and friends ”.
Eve Geddie, director of the Office of Amnesty International to the European Institutions, said that the delay “will allow irreparable damage to the human rights of the people in Poland and Hungary, and to the integrity of the rule of law throughout the EU.”
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Samuel Petrequin in Brussels, Sylvie Corbet in Paris, Monika Scislowska in Warsaw and Justin Spike in Budapest contributed to this report.
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