Hungarian PM Pushes Back On Rule Of Law Conditionality: Euronews

Sandor Zsiros at Euronews tweets: "[Hungarian PM Viktor] Orban told [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel on rule of law conditionality: "If this is approved, we make Soviet Union from the EU. The soviets used to establish without objective criteria and if if you did not stand in line, you got punished. The current ROL [rule of law] proposal is exactly the same"."

• The German chancellor, in her position of chair of the presidency of the European Council is in the process of trying to get the EU's long-term budget, and the associated COVID-19 recovery package, over the finishing line.
• Members of the European Parliament successfully attached conditions to the disbursement of funds to member states' respect for 'the rule of law'.
• At the Council level, one country can veto the budget so getting Orban and the Polish gov't on board is crucial. May come down to what is more important for those two gov'ts, maintaining socially conservative domestic policy and influence over judiciaries or continued access to EU structural funds and COVID-19 support.