The informal EU summit on the coordination of activities related to the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the blockade of work on the multiannual financial framework and the reconstruction plan, has started. Poland and Hungary raised reservations regarding the regulation on linking EU funds with the rule of law.
On Wednesday in the Polish Sejm, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki emphasized that Poland was saying a firm “yes” to the European Union, but at the same time a firm “no” to mechanisms that treat Poland and other EU member states unequally. As he explained, the rule of law should also be understood as “the right of states to reform, in accordance with the treaties and their own constitution, their judiciary”.
Diplomats and politicians in Brussels are considering a possible way out of the situation. For now the proposal to omit Poland and Hungary from the reconstruction fund and to conclude an intergovernmental agreement under which funds would be distributed has been rejected. “It’s an atomic option,” one diplomat admitted.