During a meeting in Warsaw on Tuesday, the leaders of the Hungarian and Polish governments met to agree on their next moves in the dispute over the rule-of-law conditionality mechanism ahead of a crucial European Union summit on Dec. 10 and Dec. 11.
The first half of the meeting included Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Law and Justice (PiS) head and Deputy Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński, and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki
According to an interview by TVP Info , Orbán insisted that the negotiations were on track, and he expected them to yield a good result for both Poland and Hungary.
He said that “the real reason for the dispute is that some don’t understand what the rule of law really is and this is because they never had to fight for it, they have only read about it. They had democracy, rule of law and high living standards all served on them on a plate as part of their inheritance.”
Asked about what had been agreed on during his meeting with Kaczyński and Morawiecki Orbán praised both by saying he would always come when invited by Kaczyński, Poland’s ruling party leader, whom Orbán regards as a “legend” as well as Morawiecki who heads the Visegrád Four group. Viktor Orban, PM of Hungary: Negotiations are continuing with the German EU presidency and I am optimistic that they will end in victory. The chances of reaching agreement this week are high. According to Orbán, the meeting solidified and fortified the Polish-Hungarian alliance. He felt that it was “more than 100 percent certain that the two countries would continue to work through their alliance”.
The Hungarian prime minister did not want to talk about EU funding, which he viewed as being guaranteed for both countries. As for the recovery fund, he noted that it is a fund based on capital raised on the markets and was really not something Poland and Hungary needed since they could raise capital on the markets for themselves. He emphasized that the real issue was “sovereignty”.
The conservative governments of Hungary and Poland fear that any rule-of-law mechanism tied to EU funding could be used by Brussels to dictate policies to national governments on issues such as immigration , traditional values, abortion rights , and multiculturalism. Orbán, in a letter to European People’s Party group leader Manfred Weber last week, outlined how the new rule-of-law mechanism is designed to target Hungary and Poland, and cited the words of EU leaders and politicians to back his assertion. TVP Info According to Viktor Orban the meeting solidified and fortified the Polish-Hungarian alliance. Orbán confirmed yesterday to TVP Info that negotiations were continuing with the German presidency in the European Council and said he was optimistic that they would end in victory. He regarded the chances of reaching an agreement this week as high.
Ministers Gowin and Ziobro joined Orbán, Kaczyński and Morawiecki
The Polish government’s spokesman Piotr Müller told reporters after the Orbán-Kaczyński-Morawiecki meeting that Poland and Hungary are maintaining their position that there is a need to decouple rule of law conditionality from the EU budget.
“We need clear guidelines to separate the state from budget law, no question about this,” announced Müller.
Müller confirmed that the two junior partners in the Law and Justice (PiS) ruling bloc, Deputy Prime Minister Jarosław Gowin, who leads the Agreement party and Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, who leads the United Poland party, attended the latter half of the meeting with Orbán, Kaczyński and Morawiecki.
Gowin has been arguing that there should be a compromise over the EU budget and rule-of-law mechanism, whereas Ziobro has argued that any rule-of-law mechanism would be a violation of EU treaties and should be vetoed.
