Council, Parliament Reach Agreement On Budget & COVID-19 Recovery Package

Following four months of talks, negotiators for the European Council and the European Parliament have seemingly reached a deal on the next long-term budget (multiannual financial framework, MFF) and the COVID-19 recovery package contained within it.

• In order to come into force next year both the Council (formed by member state leaders) and the plenary session of the European Parliament will have to approve the deal.
• The centre-right European People's Party, the largest political grouping in the Parliament tweeted that it had achieved its following objectives: "More money for flagship programmes, Binding commitment from EU countries to introduce own resources, Rule Of Law conditionality, EP has say on Next Generation EU [MFF] spending".
• Level of strictness on rule of law provisions will be interesting to see. If they are watered-down it will seem that Poland and Hungary's threat of a veto proved effective in getting the EU to back down. If they are robust then it would seem both nations viewed the securing of EU funds as more important than pursuing some current domestic policies that have resulted in deteriorating relations with Brussels.