WARSAW: Poland and Hungary could reach a compromise to allow the EU to pass budget, but another summit might be needed to work out the deal beyond the meeting of the bloc’s leaders planned for this week, Poland’s Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau said on Wednesday.
Poland and Hungary have been blocking 1.8 trillion euros ($2.18 trillion) in funding because their nationalist governments oppose a clause linking the release of funds to the rule of law. The issue is set to be discussed on Thursday at an EU summit, known as the European Council.
“If we can’t reach an agreement in the next two days … there will have to be another European Council this year or the negotiations will be moved to new circumstances under the Portuguese presidency,” Rau told Polish state radio.
Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski met Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Warsaw on Tuesday evening.
Orban said after the meeting there was a “good chance” to work out a deal this week.
Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Gowin, who heads up the more moderate junior coalition partner Accord, said that if Poland’s ruling United Right coalition fails to reach a compromise, early elections would have to be called.
“I cast aside the choice, veto or death…The alternative for the United Right government would be early elections which would not serve Poland well during a pandemic,” Gowin told a Wednesday press conference. Gowin said that Poland, as one of the EU’s biggest budget beneficiaries, stands to lose if the veto continues.
The EU has long been at odds with the nationalist governments in Warsaw and Budapest, which Brussels accuses of flouting rule of law guidelines by imposing political control over the judiciary, media and other institutions. Poland and Hungary deny their policies threaten the rule of law, and describe the issue as meddling in their internal affairs.
According to a statement on the website of the European Commission in Budapest, Hungary’s budget would receive at least a net 4 billion euros under the coronavirus recovery fund.
A European Commission source said the net benefit to Poland would be around 65 billion euros.
Poland’s government spokesman Piotr Muller said on Wednesday that Warsaw wanted any mention of the mechanism in the EU budget deal to be “clear”. He did not specify the demands further.
“I don’t want to divulge our negotiation strategy, but the mechanism on conditionality has to be included in such a way that is clear,” Muller told Polish state television TVP. “If it’s not clear, we won’t have a compromise.”
(1 euro = 4.4294 zlotys)
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