Meeting by videoconference, the twenty-seven European leaders did not decide, Thursday, November 19, on the idea of suspend disbursement of EU funds to countries that do not respect the rule of law and allow themselves more time to address the issue.
Hungarian Nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his ultra-conservative Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki have threatened to veto it. They know they are targeted: the Commission is already investigating the independence of the judiciary, the media and NGOs in their countries. They have the support of Janez Jansa: close to Orban, the Slovenian says he fears arbitrary decisions and politically motivated
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How is this worrying?
In the absence of agreement on the question of the rule of law, the entire European budget is frozen, or 1,090 billion euros over the period 2021-2027. As well as the 750 billion stimulus plan supposed to cushion the economic shock of Covid-19. But time is running out, especially for the countries of the South (Italy, Spain, etc.), which were hit hard by the health crisis in the spring.
How to get out of the deadlock?
By pretending. France and the Netherlands did not exclude, yesterday, resorting to a legislative procedure or a treaty which would allow to move forward temporarily without Hungary and Poland. Some of the money could be released urgently. But that would compromise the loans jointly promised for the first time. There remains therefore the hope that Budapest and Warsaw give in in fine… Their countries, which are among the first recipients of European funds, will not be able to do without them forever. Especially since they are, in turn, caught up by the Covid.
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