EU leaders fail to solve political fight blocking big budget
The deal for the budget and recovery fund looked well on track to enter into force in January — until Hungary and Poland vetoed it this week. The Polish parliament passed a resolution Thursday backing the government’s plan to veto the EU budget if it included the rule-of-law condition. The resolution calls it unacceptable and inconsistent with the EU treaty to apply “different standards” to different members. The EU has opened legal procedures against the two countries over what it considers systemic threats to the rule of law. ___Frank Jordans in Berlin, Raf Casert in Brussels, and Vanessa Gera in Warsaw, Poland, contributed to this report.
EU hit by new crisis, this time over money and values
The European Union still hasn't completely sorted out its messy post-divorce relationship with Britain but it has already been plunged into another major crisis. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski, File)BUDAPEST – The European Union still hasn't completely sorted out its messy post-divorce relationship with Britain — but it has already been plunged into another major crisis. Ahead of Thursday's virtual EU summit, where leaders hope to end the stalemate, here is a look at the budget battle. At the heart of the crisis is the question of what the EU is — primarily a zone of free trade made up of independent nations or a union that shares common democratic values? In 2018, the EU agency that investigates how the bloc’s money is spent carried out more investigations in Hungary than in any other EU country.