The Rule of Law in the EU Budget: Backing Down is Too High a Price for the EU to Pay

Abstract

Hungary and Poland are threatening to veto the EU's new budgetary arrangements if other governments apply the rule of law mechanism to them. It is becoming clear, however, that the new EU financial framework, and the much-heralded recovery fund, are more vital to Eastern Europe than to Europe's South and that time is not on the side of the former. Awareness of this fact allows for a cool assessment of the pair's bargaining positions - and of the precedent that any hasty resolution to the crisis will set.