(ANSA-AFP) - WARSAW, 18 NOV - Prime Minister Mateusz
Morawiecki on Wednesday defended Poland's decision to veto the
EU's budget and coronavirus rescue fund, warning that an attempt
by Brussels to tie financing to rule-of-law conditions could
break up the bloc. "An EU in which there is a European oligarchy
that punishes the weaker (members) isn't the EU we entered and
this is not the EU with a future," Morawiecki told parliament on
the eve of a European summit that is set to be dominated by the
row. "We say 'yes' to the European Union, but 'no' to being
punished like children, 'no' to mechanisms that mean Poland and
other countries are treated unequally," he said. "This is a
matter of sovereignty," he said, adding that tying funding to
political conditions decided in Brussels could lead eventually
"to a break-up of the EU". "Today, you think this instrument is
directed against us, Hungary, maybe Slovenia, maybe some other
country in Central Europe. In a few years' time, in two or three
years' time, it could be directed against someone else." "This
is a turning point in EU history. Making decisions based on the
arbitrary provisions of regulation may lead to its collapse," he
said. Hungary and Poland blocked approval on Monday of the EU's
long-term budget and coronavirus rescue -- a 1.8-trillion-euro
package -- and plunged the bloc into a political crisis.
(ANSA-AFP).
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