Hungary and Poland Veto EU Budget Over Rule-of-Law Conditionality

On November 26, 2020, Hungary and Poland blocked the EU's €1.8 trillion multi-year budget framework (MFF 2021-2027) and COVID Recovery Fund by vetoing the rule-of-law conditionality mechanism linking EU funds to respect for judicial independence. The veto threatened to delay disbursement of COVID recovery funds across all 27 member states. After two weeks of intensive negotiations, both countries accepted a political declaration that they interpreted as limiting the mechanism's scope — a compromise critics said granted them nothing substantive while giving them cover to capitulate.