[AmSpectator] The governments of Hungary and Poland vetoed the European Union’s six-year budget on Monday, along with the special additional recovery stimulus proposed by the EU Commission (its executive body). This adds up to quite a bit of cabbage, two thousand billion dollars American, which, as the late, great Sen. Everett Dirksen might have noted, suggests they are talking real money in Brussels and Strasbourg.
But are they really talking about money, or are some getting into others’ business that they ought better leave alone? This is the view of the governing parties of Hungary and Poland. They are not opposed to stimulus packages and multi-year budgets, from which they receive more than they contribute. What Fidesz (Civic Alliance, Hungary) and Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (Law and Justice, Poland) object to is the EU’s requirement that member states conform to its definition of "rule of law."
The EU Commissioners in Brussels, the confederation’s executive branch, and the deputies to the European Parliament in Strasbourg are eager to distribute the huge epidemic relief package, as well as nail down a budget for the next six years. It will involve taking on a huge pile of debt, but at a time of uncertainty about the severity and duration of the "second wave" of the virus, they figure the social contracts on which contemporary Europe is founded depend on such mortgaging of the future. |