"No, we are not late" on the timing of the recovery fund.
"We hope that the veto of Hungary and Poland will be overcome. We are on schedule and I believe that the times will be respected".
Thus the president of the European Parliament David Sassoli on the program Restart on Rai2.
"The EU can move forward without blocking countries".
It was France, through the mouth of the Secretary of State for European Affairs Clement Beaune, that openly vibrated the threat that has been whispering in Brussels for a couple of days.
"A nuclear variant that nobody wants", but which like all other options remains on the table if the rebels Hungary and Poland are not convinced to accept the rule of law clause and to lift the veto on the European budget and the Recovery Fund, he clarified Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
The formula would be that of the intergovernmental agreement, a long and winding road, with very heavy political and practical implications, to be taken only if no other way out can be found.
And certainly not new.
The hypothesis had already been evaluated during the interminable negotiation days at the July summit, when the 27 leaders were unable to find the square on the 1,800 billion economic stimulus.
But even then it had been put back in the drawer.
The idea has been rejected for the moment by the Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni, who urged "not to consider proposals that could not solve the problem, but simply distract from the objective of solving it";
and who instead appealed to the leaders to approve the relaunch package "to put economies on a path of recovery" and avoid delays that could have serious consequences.
The risk is not only an extension of the times for disbursements from the Recovery but also a provisional exercise of the new EU budget, with the closing of the payment taps for almost all the new expenses.
Definitely counterproductive for Poland, the first beneficiary of the Union for non-repayable aid for regional policies, with 75 billion allocated for 2021-2027.
But despite the strong European pressure of these hours - with Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Presidents of the Council and European Commission Charles Michel and Ursula von der Leyen committed to weaving the web of mediation also in view of the videoconference of tomorrow's leaders - Budapest and Warsaw they gave no signs of rethinking.
Indeed, Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa also took the field in their defense.
