BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th December, 2020) The EU summit on Thursday will be dominated by the prospect of a partial shutdown that the bloc risks if it fails to lift a Polish and Hungarian veto on its 2021-2027 budget and recovery fund before the end of the year.
The two central European nations have blocked the $2.2 trillion funding package, which includes $908 million in grants and loans to coronavirus-hit members, over fears that they would be denied money for what the EU sees as their disregard of the rule of law.
Both sides have accused each other of "blackmail," with the left and the globalists in the European Parliament taking it one step further by announcing that the European Union could create a selective stimulus mechanism that would exclude the two holdouts.
The European Commission immediately started working on the initiative, but it will take weeks or even months to create the conditions for it. The EU will also need a provisional budget before the long-term one is passed, which will be barely enough to cover essential functions.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban added fuel to the fire on Tuesday when he proclaimed, after meeting with his Polish counterpart, Mateusz Morawiecki, that the two were a "centimeter away" from breaking the stalemate in their favor.
Germany, which holds the rotating EU presidency, has been feverishly trying to broker a compromise, seeing how vital the much-touted recovery fund is to the bloc's post-coronavirus economic rebound.
A European diplomatic source involved in preparations for this Thursday's EU summit told Sputnik on condition of anonymity that the two rebel countries had the upper hand in the budget standoff.
"They have nothing to lose and could still block many other debates in the following months... It would soon become a fight between legal experts about national sovereignty and the limits of European decisions: a real mess in perspective," the diplomat said.
The source suggested there was a way to decouple the availability of EU funding from the contentious rule of law safeguard, which links the release of funds to the EU's democratic values. This would push the debate back to the second half of 2021 when Slovenia takes over the EU presidency.
"Slovenia is on the side of Poland and Hungary, which would somehow reassure Orban and the Poles. That is the best way forward, even if there will be an outcry in the European parliament majority," the diplomat said.
Each side has been furbishing its weapons and sending warning signs to the other. The Polish prime minister has warned that another EU summit might be needed to agree the budget. He told the Polish press that the EU faced more long months of talks.
