BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary cannot accept the European Union budget in its present form, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff said on Thursday, underlining the right of each EU member state to use its veto.
Hungary and Poland vetoed the EU’s 2021-27 budget and its coronavirus economic recovery fund last month, saying they opposed plans to attach rule-of-law conditions to the disbursement of money.
Gergely Gulyas, Orban’s chief of staff, said Hungary was open to further negotiations. But he said “there will not be an agreement” if the link to a clause on respecting the rule of law is maintained.
“In its present form we cannot accept the EU budget, and every member state has the right of veto,” Gulyas told a weekly government briefing when asked if Orban would veto the budget and recovery fund at an EU summit scheduled for next week.
Poland and Hungary are blocking about 1.8 trillion euros (1.63 trillion pounds) worth of EU funds, including hundreds of billions due to be disbursed soon to help pull the 27-country bloc out of a double-dip recession caused by a second wave of COVID-19.
The EU is investigating the nationalist governments of Hungary and Poland for undermining the independence of their media and courts and had sought to attach conditions to the disbursement of EU cash.
The two countries have dug in their heels after vetoing the EU budget and rescue funds last month, saying no such rule-of-law-conditions can be attached unless the bloc changes its founding treaty.
Reporting by Anita Komuves and Krisztina Than; Editing by Alex Richardson and Timothy Heritage
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