Merkel technical position on EU's rule of Law
Thursday's online summit of the European Union's heads of state and government failed to make any progress on the issue of linking budget and recovery funds to rule of law criteria after Poland and Hungary announced they will veto the budget if any political criteria are linked to the payments.
Both the Hungarian and Polish prime ministers joined the meeting having previously clearly stated their positions; one day ahead of the summit, they were backed by Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša.
"Some political groups... are openly threatening to use the instrument wrongly called 'rule of law' in order to discipline individual EU member states through a majority vote," Janša wrote in a letter to EU Council President Charles Michel published in local media.
Hungary and Poland blocked the EU's €750 billion recovery package as well as the seven-year, €1.8 trillion budget. They decided to take such a radical step because of Brussels' attempt to "force foreign values upon member nations“ in a long-lasting dispute over the rule of law principle, immigration, and the political environment in both Poland and Hungary.
Ahead of the meeting, Hungarian government spokesman Zoltán Kovács said that the responsibility is now on those member states that have altered the original agreement reached at the July EU summit, during which Hungary made clear its position that it would not agree to political criteria for the distribution of EU funds.
Any attempt to reconcile positions was primarily blocked by the Netherlands and France. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the European Union's current position on the rule of law was "the bare minimum" while French Minister for European Affairs Clement Clément Beaune said at the summit that France will insist on the rule of law criteria because "our values and our European project are at stake."
Beaune also floated the idea that the other 25 member states may have to go on without Hungary and Poland.
"We are looking, as a last resort, at how to proceed without the countries blocking the deal," Beaune said, a position also shared by Guy Verhostadt from the Renew Europe group, who wrote in an article that the EU should call Hungary and Poland's bluff and go ahead without them.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel — who holds the rotating presidency of the European Union until the end of the year — was much more cautious and stressed that "we have to continue talking with Hungary and Poland."
When asked whether the European Union should threaten Hungary and Poland with taking away their voting rights, Merkel said
For me, the word "threat" in this context is not a word at all. We have a duty to try to find a way.
The other pressing issue of the summit was a Brexit deal, with November 19 previously seen as the last deadline to reach an agreement between the UK and the European Union; but that also fell through, as the EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, was forced into self-isolation, so face-to-face talks have been suspended.
Title image: European Council President Charles Michel speaks with EU leaders during an EU Summit video conference at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020. EU leaders held a video conference to address the need to strengthen the collective effort against the COVID-19 pandemic. They also discussed quarantine regulations, cross-border contact tracing, temporary restrictions on non-essential travel to the EU, and the EU vaccine strategy. (Olivier Hoslet, Pool via AP)
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