Hungary and Poland are realizing their threats and blocking the EUR 1.8 trillion EU financial package for the coming years.
In the middle of the corona pandemic, the European Union is once again in a serious political crisis.
Brussels - The necessary decision for the billions in
Corona aid from the EU
is blocked.
In protest against a new procedure for punishing violations of the
rule of law
,
Hungary and Poland prevented
the political
decision-making process from
continuing as planned
on Monday
, as several diplomats from the
German Press Agency
confirmed.
In
addition to the planned Corona reconstruction aid of up to 750 billion euros, the long-term EU budget is also
affected by the
veto
.
For the next seven years it comprises funds amounting to almost 1.1 billion euros and finances, for example, grants for
agriculture
and
research programs
.
EU budget: renewed political crisis in the European Union
The EU is
once again in a serious political crisis in the
midst of the
Corona
crisis.
According to diplomats, Chancellor
Angela Merkel *
, EU Council President
Charles Michel
and EU Commission President
Ursula von der Leyen
will now
have to discuss how to proceed.
The dispute will then probably become the subject of a video conference of the
heads of state and government
planned for Thursday
.
For her, it should actually be about better cooperation against the
corona pandemic
.
If the financial package cannot be launched, the EU will only have an
emergency budget
from next year
.
In addition, the corona aid could not flow, which is supposed to save countries like Italy and Spain from an economic crash.
EU budget: Hungary and Poland criticize procedures to protect the rule of law
The disbursement of the first funds should actually be made possible in the course of the second quarter of 2021.
In addition to the resolutions blocked on Monday, an elaborate
ratification process is also
necessary.
According to information from the
EU Commission
, the national parliaments in almost all EU countries must also be concerned with the issue.
The process of
protecting the
rule of law
criticized by Hungary and Poland
provides for the reduction of EU funds in the future in the event of certain violations of fundamental EU values.
The instrument should only be able to be used if there is a threat of misuse of EU funds.
However, this could already be the case if a lack of
independence from the courts
raises justified concerns that decisions on the distribution of EU funds can no longer be independently controlled.
The governments in
Hungary
and
Poland
in
particular
have been repeatedly accused of expanding their influence on the judiciary.
(dpa) * Merkur.de is part of the Ippen digital network.