Hungary and Poland's vetoing the EU's
COVID Recovery Fund due to conditionality on rule of law is
"improper" Economy Minister Roberto Gulatieri said Thursday.
The minister described the position of Poland and Hungary as
"doubly improper" both in contents, because a "balanced
compromise" had been reached on rule of law, and because "it
transfers dissatisfaction" from a non-veto procedure to "a veto
on one's own resources".
Gualtieri said the whole of the EU needed the 750 billion euros
Next Generation EU scheme to get off the ground.
He said he was confident the dispute could be resolved next
month.
"An OK for the rules of the Recovery Fund is possible in
December", he said.
He said he was "satisfied" by improvements made at October's
ECOFIN meeting.
As well as vetoing the Recovery Fund because of alleged
interference in their controversial rule of law policies, Poland
and Hungary also vetoed the EU's multi-year budget, for a total
of 1.8 trillion euros.
Slovenia showed support for their stance on Wednesday.
Meanwhile European Affairs Minister Enzo Amendola denied reports
that there was "alarm" in the EU over Italy's plans to get its
209 billion euro chunk of the Recovery Fund.
He described reports that the European Commission was alarmed at
an alleged delay in presenting Italy's plans as "groundless".
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