Hungary and Poland should accept rule-of-law EU budget conditions – Romania’s President

Hungary and Poland should accept rule-of-law conditions attached to EU funds to expedite a deal on the bloc’s long-term budget and coronavirus recovery fund, Romanian Prime Minister Ludovic Orban told POLITICO.

The governments of the countries that oppose this conditionality must understand that it is necessary to build public trust around this program, which is extremely important for relaunching the economy of the whole of Europe, for the benefit of citizens in Poland and Hungary,” said Orban.

I don’t believe that a government can tell its own citizens that this plan should be blocked,” he said. “All taxpayers from EU member countries should have the guarantee that the money is used correctly.”

Romania, itself the subject of a justice system monitoring mechanism from Brussels, is unlikely to have difficulties accessing funds with rule-of-law strings attached, Orban said. The country’s share of the recovery and resilience facility is estimated at around €30.4 billion.

POLITICO