The European Council accepted the EU’s budget for the 2021-2027 financial cycle and its Next Generation EU recovery fund. Regarding the rule-of-law provision in the document, the summit added a clause stating that the mechanism can only be triggered if a member state’s actions harm EU financial interests. At the press conference after the summit, Orbán said the debate was “not only about the rule-of-law mechanism.” “The EU’s very future was at stake.” Orbán said that the achievements of the summit served to protect EU unity. “The agreement is a good outcome in terms of Europe’s future, because it has become obvious that the EU can only operate as a community of nations,” the prime minister said.
The agreement protects the European Treaty by preventing the rule-of-law mechanism from being used for political purposes, he said. The agreement can only be amended with a unanimous agreement of all member state leaders, he said. Hungary will exercise its right to bring the rule-of-law mechanism before the European court to see whether it is compatible with EU law, he said.
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