Europe is working on an escape route to bypass a looming Polish-Hungarian veto against the European multiannual budget. This Polish-Hungarian resistance also threatens to block the payout of the massive corona recovery fund, as well as the financing for the transitional scheme for the new agricultural policy.
The issue threatens to cause the upcoming EU leaders' summit to fail from the outset. That is why the European Commission is now working—with support from France and the Netherlands—on a payment plan involving 25 EU member states, excluding the two obstructors. In that case, the ‘sacred unanimity’ on budget matters would be abandoned for the first time.
The dispute over the 2021-2027 multiannual budget affects a wide range of issues. The biggest obstacle is a new fines system for countries that disregard ‘European norms and values.’ More and more EU politicians believe that Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán and the Polish PiS party have been going their own way for far too long.
Because Poland and Hungary seem determined to block the budget package plus recovery fund (together worth 1.820 trillion euros), the entire EU financing risks coming to a halt.
The Agriculture Committee and the agriculture ministers did approve a two-year transitional arrangement for CAP subsidies last week, but that funding is now also uncertain. Everyone acknowledges that this transitional scheme must be paid for, and therefore forms part of the AGRI budget 2021, which in turn is part of the currently contested EU multiannual financial framework 2021-2027.
The heads of state and government will meet to discuss this next week (10-12 December), followed by the full European Parliament (14–17 December). Due to all this turmoil, the funding of all agricultural agreements could again be put in jeopardy…