Polish EU Lawmaker Proposes Adoption Of Controversial Budget When German Presidency Ends

WARSAW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 30th November, 2020) Polish member of the European Parliament Jacek Saryusz-Wolski has proposed to wait until Germany transfers the EU presidency to Portugal in January before adopting the new long-term budget.

The European Union has so far failed to unanimously approve the new seven-year budget and continues discussions to find a final solution. European Council President Charles Michel said on November 19 that the position of a number of EU countries did not allow the new multi-year financial plan to be finalized.

"We must hold out for a little more than a month, wait for the Portuguese and then the Slovenian presidency [in the EU], because we do not sit at the table with swindlers," Saryusz-Wolski told Niezalezna newspaper.

The financial package comprising the 750 billion euro ($889 billion) COVID-19 support fund and the bloc's next seven-year budget was agreed between the European Parliament and the European Council on November 10.

For the first time in its history, the EU will have a specific mechanism to protect the funds against "breaches of the rule of law," a decision negotiated on November 5.

Earlier in November, Poland and Hungary vetoed the long-term EU budget, as well as the coronavirus recovery package, after opposing the budget law clause that ties the availability of the money to the rule of law and respect for democratic standards in recipient countries. Both countries are under the formal EU process over concerns for judicial independence there.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that Hungary had vetoed the European Union's budgetary package because it makes the access to shared funds conditional upon support for immigration which Brussels has long tried to pass off as commitment to "the rule of law."

Germany's chairmanship in the EU will last until the end of the year and from January 1, it will be transferred to Portugal.