EU leaders meeting in Brussels resolved a standoff with two eastern member states that had threatened to delay a historic US$2.2 trillion budget and stimulus package just as the latest wave of COVID-19 infections ravages the continent’s economies.
A deal was agreed on Thursday with Hungary and Poland, which had angrily protested a mechanism tying funding to upholding democratic norms.
The agreement paves the way for the EU to put into effect not just its seven-year budget, but a 750 billion euro (US$909 billion) pandemic relief package that would be financed by joint debt, a landmark move by the bloc.
Photo: Bloomberg
All the same, the leaders struggled to reach an accord on a related proposal for steeper cuts in carbon emissions over the next decade. That policy is supposed to be at the heart of their strategy for rebuilding the European economy after the pandemic, but Poland again raised objections and the talks were still ongoing at 6:30am in Brussels.
The German-brokered compromise on the budget offers reassurances over how the new conditions would be applied, but the rule-of-law provision would remain in place. The dispute was the culmination of years of clashes between Brussels and the two countries over everything from political meddling in the judiciary to LGBTQ rights.
Under the compromise, the conditionality would only kick in from Jan. 1 and relate to commitments under the new budget. Penalties would only be enacted after the European Court of Justice has had its say, which could take months.
In truth, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki had backed themselves into a corner by repeatedly decrying the linkage between EU financing and democratic standards.
That mechanism, agreed on in the summer between the European Parliament and Germany — which holds the bloc’s rotating presidency — was supported by the rest of the EU, in particular states like the Netherlands that want more scrutiny over how cash is spent.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte called the rule-of-law provision “historic.” The reaction was mixed in Budapest and Warsaw.
Hungarian Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office Gergely Gulyas said the deal prevents the budget being used for “political attacks” and includes all guarantees that Hungary and Poland requested.
However, the junior coalition party of Polish Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro questioned whether the agreement would allow his country to remain “sovereign.”
Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said the declaration that allowed for the agreement did not change the original rule-of-law mechanism that had been agreed by member states.
“There’s no compromise on the content, no compromise on the text,” Lofven told reporters before the summit. “We declared things we needed to declare.”
There was a lot at stake for Hungary and Poland. The pair are the biggest net beneficiaries of EU cash, helping their economies close the gap on their richer neighbors to the West, and are in line for at least 180 billion euros from this spending package.
Had they gone ahead with their vetoes, the EU would have switched to an emergency budget from next year.
That would have seen funding plunge in almost all areas, and potentially put Poland and Hungary at the back of the line for even the limited development aid that would be available.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last