Hungary sees chance for EU budget deal at crunch summit

BUDAPEST: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's cabinet chief said on Thursday there is a chance for an agreement on the European Union's next budget and recovery fund as the bloc's leaders met for a crunch summit.

Poland and Hungary have been blocking the 2021-2027 EU budget and coronavirus recovery fund because their nationalist governments oppose a clause linking the release of funds to rule-of-law standards.

But on Thursday a compromise appeared to be close which Hungary said contained "all the important guarantees" that it and Poland needed.

Cabinet chief Gergely Gulyas told a press briefing that part of the compromise - allowing countries to turn to the EU's top court to test any rule-of-law procedure - could delay any such procedures from taking place until at least 2023.

There was no immediate comment from the EU on that point.

The EU has long been at odds with Warsaw and Budapest, accusing them of flouting democracy standards by imposing political controls over the judiciary, media and other institutions.

Poland and Hungary deny such policies threaten the rule of law and cast the issue as meddling in their internal affairs.

"There is a compromise, which is acceptable for Germany and meets the conditions of Hungary and Poland, therefore, there is a chance that we can book this victory at today's EU summit and heads of state and government can approve the documents ... unanimously," Gulyas said.

He added that, under the compromise, the rule-of-law mechanism could not be applied until the EU top court made a ruling.

"This means that if we attack the resolution in February, then for another year the rule of law mechanism cannot take effect and even after that the Commission has to work out the principles of its operation, so there won't be any rule of law proceedings launched before 2023," Gulyas said.

Orban, who has been in power for over a decade, faces parliamentary election in early 2022.