EU budget deal paves a path for recovery
President of the European Parliament David Sassoli gestures to ask members of parliament to calm down, during a plenary session of the European Parliament, in Brussels on Wednesday.
Negotiators from the European Parliament and EU governments agreed on the details of the 2021-2027 EU budget on Tuesday, in a crucial step for the activation of the bloc’s 1.8 trillion euro (US$2.1 trillion) recovery package to make the economy greener and more digital.
“A deal for Europe — Council and European Parliament negotiators reach political agreement on the EU budget & recovery package,” Sebastian Fischer, the spokesman for the German presidency of the EU, said on Twitter.
The deal, which took almost four months to negotiate, now needs to be formally endorsed by EU governments and the European Parliament.
This may cause new friction because the deal links access to EU money with respect for the rule of law — a condition Poland and Hungary strongly oppose because they are under EU scrutiny for undermining the independence of the courts and media.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has sent a letter to the European Commission and the chairman of EU leaders Charles Michel threatening to veto the 1.1 trillion euro budget if the link between the money and the rule of law is not removed.
But senior officials said they were not sure if Hungary would do that, because such action would derail money for all of the 27-nation EU, including Hungary and Poland themselves, both of which were net beneficiaries of EU financial support.
The deal between parliament and government negotiators raises EU spending on health, education and security by 16 billion euros compared to the agreement of EU leaders in July.
It also establishes new revenues for EU coffers.
“By 2026, we will have a basket of new revenues that should be sufficient to cover the cost of the Recovery Fund’s debt with the aim of not having cuts in funds and programs,” said one of the parliamentary negotiators, Jose Manuel Fernandes.
Over the next weeks, talks between EU lawmakers and governments will continue on the details of the 750 billion borrowing, of which 672.5 billion is to be distributed among governments as loans and grants.
