Polish PM Threatens To Veto Budget In Call To Merkel

Mohammad Ali (@ChaudhryMAli88) Published November 27, 2020 | 08:05 PM

Poland's prime minister on Friday repeated his threat to veto the EU's budget in a call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, warning that rule-of-law conditions must be removed from the funds

Warsaw, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Nov, 2020 ) :Poland's prime minister on Friday repeated his threat to veto the EU's budget in a call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, warning that rule-of-law conditions must be removed from the funds.

"I told the Chancellor that Poland expects further work to find a solution as soon as possible," Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki wrote on Facebook.

"I also reaffirmed our readiness to veto the new budget if we do not find a solution that is good for the EU as a whole, not just for some of its members." Germany is the current holder of the EU presidency.

Poland and Hungary have sparked a crisis in the bloc by threatening to veto proposals for its long-term budget and coronavirus recovery package.

The stand-off has angered other EU member states, with many keenly awaiting payouts from the bloc's stimulus package for virus-stricken economies.

The two countries say they risk being singled out if there is conditionality on funding since both have been accused by Brussels of rolling back democratic freedoms.

Poland is already subject to an EU investigative procedure over its efforts to trim the independence of the judiciary, as is Hungary for an erosion of democratic norms, such as press freedom.

Following a meeting of ambassadors of the member states in Brussels on Friday, an EU diplomat said that the situation "remains difficult".

At the meeting, the diplomat said that the German presidency pointed out that "no progress has been made in the talks with Poland and Hungary".

The Polish and Hungarian ambassadors were "fully isolated" and "nobody voiced any support for their position", the diplomat said.

The European Commission "pointed to the very negative budgetary consequences of the blockage. The EU's capacity to act would be severely limited".