At the risk of deepening the political and budgetary crisis in the European Union, Hungary and Poland on Thursday 26 November called for an amendment to the agreement on the mechanism linking the disbursement of EU funds to respect for the Rule of law.
The two countries refuse to agree to the post-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and the Recovery Plan until they are successful.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán met his Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki on Thursday to coordinate their position (see EUROPE 12605/1).
In a joint declaration, the two leaders put forward a ‘common proposal’ to “to facilitate the speedy adoption of the financial package by establishing a two-track process”.
On the one hand, they call for “[limiting] the scope of any additional budgetary conditionality to the protection of the financial interests of the Union in accordance with the July conclusions of the European Council”. On the other hand, Messrs Orbán and Morawiecki want a procedure to “discuss in the European Council, whether a link between the Rule of Law and the financial interests of the Union should be established”. If such a link were to be established, procedures provided for in the Treaties would be initiated, “including convening an intergovernmental conference, should be considered in order to negotiate the necessary modification of the Treaties”.
“We have decided to align our positions on these issues. Neither Poland nor Hungary will accept any proposal that is deemed unacceptable by the other”, says the statement.
Both Member States reiterate that the outcome of the European Parliament/EU Council negotiations “does not conform to the agreement reached” at the European Council. Their objective is to “prevent a mechanism which would not strengthen, but undermine the Rule of Law within the Union by degrading it to a political instrument”. “The proposed conditionality circumvents the Treaty, applies vague definitions and ambiguous terms without clear criteria on which sanctions can be based and contains no meaningful procedural guarantees”, the joint statement said.
See the statement: https://bit.ly/366Whda (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)