No rule of law conditions in next EU budget - Polish PM

The payments from the EU's 2021-27 budget will not be made dependent on the state of the rule of law in individual member states, Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki wrote on Facebook, commenting on a marathon budget summit that ended in the early hours on Tuesday.

"This dispute has been going on for several years and I and (Hungarian PM) Viktor Orban appealed for an end to this discussion. All the procedures require unanimity in the European Council," the Polish PM wrote on Tuesday afternoon, commenting on ideas to link EU budget payments to the rule of law conditions.

He added that, in the summit conclusions, "there is no dependence of EU funds (...) on the rule of law."

Morawiecki also said the effects of the summit were very beneficial for Poland, adding that and the funds allocated to his country totalled PLN 750 bln (EUR 169 bln), or even PLN 770 bln (EUR 174 bln) in current prices.

"It is a huge cash injection for our country. All Poles will benefit from it," Morawiecki wrote.

The prime minister also wrote that Poland "really counts in Europe today." "We don't have only an advisory voice, but a decisive or co-decisive voice on key matters. In commentaries to the summit, one could hear that there are three different centres that negotiate with one another. The South, which has been seriously affected by the outcomes of the epidemic; the rich North; and Central Europe, or the Visegrad Group (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia - PAP), which is a kind of an intermediary between the two groups and which took good care of its own interests," Morawiecki wrote.

Under the summit's conclusions, the EU's next seven-year budget will be worth EUR 1,074 bln, while the post-pandemic recovery fund will total EUR 750 bln, including EUR 390 bln in grants and EUR 360 bln in loans.