Poland Rules Out 'Rule of Law' Demands for EU Cash

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Monday said he would not allow the EU to put "rule-of law" conditions on Poland receiving EU budget cash.

Morawiecki spoke as he arrived to the fourth day of an EU summit that has seen the bloc's 27 leaders unable to agree a post-coronavirus rescue deal.

The leaders are also trying to greenlight a one-trillion-euro EU budget, where most of the spending goes to farmers and development aid for eastern and southern Europe. 

But several mainly nordic countries, plus the Netherlands, have insisted that members such as Poland and Hungary meet EU standards on free speech and independent courts if they want to receive the funding.

"For (the compromise) to be acceptable to Poland, we must obtain what we’ve asked for from the beginning: no discretionary powers for EU bodies, EU institutions regarding the rule of law," Mateusz Morawiecki told Polish media in Brussels.

Like Hungary, Poland has been pilloried for years for undermining EU values such as freedom of the press and independence of the judiciary. 

The EU's executive has launched several proceedings in recent years against Budapest and Warsaw to impose them, but the attempts have been unsuccessful.

The agreement on the EU's seven-year budget requires unanimous approval by the EU's member states as well as ratification by European Parliament.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, the main protagonist of the "frugal" countries in the dispute over the recovery fund, has insisted that the EU budget be linked to the rule of law.

Morawiecki complained that a compromise proposal on the recovery fund was "forced by a group of stingy, selfish countries, which see things very narrowly through their own prism."