EU reaches $2.2 trillion budget and virus deal

BRUSSELS — European Union leaders have reached an agreement on a massive long-term budget and coronavirus recovery package, EU Council President Charles Michel said Thursday, after they overcame objections from Hungary and Poland about a move to tie use of the bloc’s funds to upholding of the rule of law.

The$2.21 trillion seven-year budget and recovery package is considered vital for many countries whose economies have been devastated by the virus. Poland and Hungary had agreed to the deal in July but later vetoed it, fearing the new mechanism could target them for breaches of Europe’s democratic standards.

“Now we can start with the implementation and build back our economies. Our landmark recovery package will drive forward our green and digital transitions,” Michel said in a tweet during an EU summit.

No details of the agreement were available.

The breakthrough came days after it appeared that Poland and Hungary’s 25 EU partners might go it alone and create a new coronavirus recovery package without them.

Ahead of the two-day summit, EU diplomats and officials said the solution would take the form of a declaration clarifying that the rule of law mechanism would not be used against any country without a ruling from the EU’s top court, the European Court of Justice, first. That process could take a year.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki had warned that it could be a case of us now, you tomorrow.

“We have to avoid any arbitrary and politically motivated decisions,” he said. “Today, we fear that we might be attacked in (an) unjustified way, but of course in the future (it can be) any country.”