In a joint statement issued on Thursday after their talks in Budapest, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki stressed that neither Poland, nor Hungary would accept any proposal that was deemed unacceptable by the other.
The proposed conditionality circumvents the Treaties, applies vague definitions and ambiguous terms without clear criteria on which sanctions can be based and contains no meaningful procedural guarantees, the English-language document made available by the Press Office of the Prime Minister to the Hungarian news agency MTI reads.
The two prime ministers stressed that Hungary and Poland are committed to common European values; however, there is already a procedure for the protection of these in community law. According to the document, in the debate on the budget, the governments of the two countries seek solutions which make the necessary financial resources available for Member States within the shortest possible time, and those are responsible for the current situation that hinders this who want to establish a link between the rule of law and the European Union’s budget.
The Hungarian and Polish position has been clear since the beginning of the negotiations, while the provisions of the agreement between the German presidency of the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament do not conform to the compromise reached at the July EU summit, they highlighted.
“Our countries have been acting and continue to act on the basis of loyal cooperation and solidarity. We remain ready to contribute to a solution to the present situation. We maintain that it requires a substantial modification of the currently proposed mechanism,” they underlined in the joint declaration.
“Our common proposal is to facilitate the speedy adoption of the financial package by establishing a two-track process. On the one hand, to limit 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, 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 it is so decided, then the appropriate procedures foreseen by the Treaties, 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,” they wrote.
