By: V4 Agency
Warsaw considers the current proposal on the conditions linked to the EU budget package to be unacceptable, because it violates the EU’s founding treaties, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawieczki said. Polish government spokesman Piotr Muller confirmed on Friday that Warsaw continues to fully support the Polish-Hungarian position regarding conditions linked to the disbursement of EU funds.
“Poland maintains its position in its entirety with regard to the regulation which determines the spending of EU funds,” Muller’s tweet reads.
“Only provisions consistent with the treaties and conclusions of the European Council may be accepted by Poland,” the spokesman writes, adding “this is also clear from the joint declaration of Poland and Hungary”.
In the declaration mentioned by Muller, the Polish and Hungarian prime ministers wrote they were ready to veto the budget package, if necessary.
During his visit to Brussels on Thursday night, Jaroslaw Gowin, deputy prime minister and deputy minister of development, delegated by the smallest party of Poland’s ruling coalition, said a compromise on the budget was possible if EU leaders adopted a binding statement explaining budgetary conditions. He underlined: Poland wants to make sure that those conditions will only affect the transparent and fair use of EU funds.
Some news agencies understood Gowin’s statement as Poland’s readiness to drop its veto to the EU budget if EU leaders endorse the above-mentioned declaration of explanations. In the statement released by PAP, Poland’s national news agency, Gowin did not use the wording that Warsaw was “ready to drop the veto”. According to PAP, however, he did say that in case of a veto, there would be a provisional EU budget, which would not neither be good for Poland, nor for the other 26 member states. Therefore, it is in the interest of all to find a good compromise, Gowin said.
Also on Thursday evening, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki stressed that the joint position adopted by Poland and Hungary must be clearly articulated in the two countries, but primarily in the whole of the EU and internationally.
Fielding a journalist’s question at his press briefing on Friday, Morawiecki reiterated that the currently proposed regulation – which links the EU’s budgetary package to certain conditions – is unacceptable for Poland as it violates the founding EU treaties.
“With the future of the EU in mind, we have firmly told our partners that we cannot adopt the regulation in its proposed form,” PM Morawiecki said. Our position remains unchanged, “it is well-founded and crystal clear,” he added.
The issue of the budget package may be featured on the agenda of next week’s summit of EU heads of state and government.
