The agreement paves the way for the final approval of a fund to help economies affected by coronavirus restrictions and the future seven-year budget of the Union.
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According to the agreement reached, the condition should apply to all EU funds. It will therefore be linked to the entire package of more than 1.8 trillion euros (over 50 trillion crowns) in the budget and fund, which member states have been negotiating with MEPs since August.
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“The agreement is a milestone in protecting EU values. For the first time, we have created a mechanism that will allow the EU to stop funding governments that do not respect our values, such as the rule of law, ”said Petri Sarvamaa, a member of the parliamentary negotiating team.
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According to him, the approved conditionality should protect EU funds both from one-off offenses and from long-term and systematic misuse of common EU money, which the EU has not yet been able to affect.
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Proposals to suspend the payment of money should be submitted by the European Commission. The country would have to confirm its suggestions by a qualified majority. This agreed compromise is more lenient than the Commission’s original request, supported in particular by the states of Northern and Western Europe, that Brussels could directly wean a country out of money, which the states could reverse by that majority.
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Dissenting attitudes
However, even this variant has long been rejected by Hungary and Poland. The EU institutions have been conducting infringement proceedings against both countries for several years. Conservative-nationalist governments in both Budapest and Warsaw argue that this procedure is sufficient and that the EU should not associate the rule of law with money.
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“It is a consensus on an unprecedented breach of the (EU) treaties,” commented Sebastian Kaleta, secretary of state at the Polish Ministry of Justice, who said countries should not be able to decide to suspend payments from the budget by a simple majority.
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The Hungarian government rejected the agreement. “It is unacceptable that the European Parliament continues to blackmail Hungary politically and ideologically, despite the current pandemic and the great challenges facing the European economy,” said Justice Minister Judit Varg.
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Proponents of the agreement, on the other hand, say that the current proceedings with Poland and Hungary have not led to major improvements and that EU funds need to be better protected, especially given that they will have significantly more money to fight the consequences of the pandemic than before.
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According to the German Ambassador to the EU Michael Claus, the agreement is a crucial point on the way to approving the budget and the fund, which should be available to member states from January.
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“Now is the time to agree on the rest of the package,” said the German diplomat, who was chairing the presidency on behalf of the member state. MEPs do not yet agree with the states on the total amount of the budget agreed in the summer by presidents and prime ministers. They want to add tens of billions of euros, especially for science, healthcare and student exchanges. However, states do not want to increase the budget by so much. So far, the states and the parliament do not have a final agreement on the new taxes and fees from which the budget increased by the crisis fund should be financed.
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