The main topic of the talks will be ongoing budget negotiations in the 27-nation bloc, of which Poland and Hungary have been members since 2004, Polish government spokesman Piotr Müller said on Tuesday.
The meeting comes after Poland and Hungary opposed the adoption of the European Union's 2021-2027 budget, voicing their criticism of a proposed mechanism to tie access to EU funds to respect for the rule of law.
Hungary's Orbán said this month his country vetoed the EU's new budget and post-coronavirus recovery fund because they would have forced it to accept immigration.
Poland has warned it could veto the bloc’s new budget if access to EU funds is linked to respect for the rule of law.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki this month told EU leaders his country opposed the use of “non-objective criteria” to decide how much cash member states receive from Brussels.
Morawiecki earlier said in a letter to the bloc's leaders that his country could not accept a mechanism of this kind because it was based on “arbitrary and politically motivated criteria.”
He argued that such a system “could lead to sanctioning the application of double standards and different treatment of individual EU member states.”
Morawiecki's letter came after negotiators from the European Parliament and the German presidency of the EU this month reached an agreement on the rule of law mechanism for the bloc’s 2021-2027 budget, a push that has met with criticism from Poland and Hungary, Poland’s PAP news agency reported.
In December 2017, the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, took the unprecedented step of triggering Article 7 of the EU Treaty against Poland, stepping up pressure on Warsaw over contested judicial reforms.
Poland and Hungary have denied EU accusations of violating democratic principles and undermining the independence of their courts.
Most Poles are against the idea of linking access to EU funds to respect for the rule of law, a recent survey has found.
(gs/pk)
Source: IAR