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Poland and Hungary have agreed on a compromise with Germany to unblock the European Union’s $2.2 trillion budget and pandemic stimulus plan, a senior government official in Warsaw said.
The compromise would end a standoff that saw Budapest and Warsaw threaten to torpedo the EU’s 750 billion-euro ($909 billion) pandemic aid fund and the 2021-2027 budget over objections to attaching rule-of-law conditions to cash.
Polish Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Gowin said an agreement had been clinched with Germany, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, that would now be presented to the rest of the bloc. A deal could be finalized by Friday by the end of a two-day summit of European leaders in Brussels, he said. A German spokeswoman said a solution hadn’t been reached yet and all member states would need to sign off.
“For now we have agreement between Warsaw, Budapest and Berlin,” Gowin, the government’s biggest advocate of Poland dropping its veto threat, told reporters Wednesday in Warsaw. “I believe this agreement will also include the 24 remaining European capitals.”