{"id":312,"date":"2020-12-16T16:10:16","date_gmt":"2020-12-16T16:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pwbpolicy.com\/?p=312"},"modified":"2021-03-03T11:55:08","modified_gmt":"2021-03-03T11:55:08","slug":"mff-no-more-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pwbpolicy.com\/index.php\/2020\/12\/16\/mff-no-more-drama\/","title":{"rendered":"MFF – no more drama"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

So it came to pass. The EU\u2019s 7 year budget framework (MFF) was approved by the Council<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hungary and Poland effectively conceded their position, having known from the outset that the Article 7 sanction measures on rule of law conditionality<\/a> that had been approved separately by qualified majority could not be revisited and that inflicting further delay on the NGEU recovery package was tantamount to self-harm. Signals that the big and biggish players were prepared to side-step continued opposition was sufficient to avoid further confrontation<\/a> and bring about the conclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story that may be told in Poland and Hungary is a different matter. In the time the EU has been discussing the MFF restrictions on media freedom and, as a direct consequence, political opposition have continued to ratchet toward full state control. In Poland moves toward the legislative restriction of the reproductive autonomy of women moved ever closer to reality along with so-called \u2018LGBT free zones\u2019 while cronyism in Hungary continued to encroach on free markets, media and academic institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October the European Court of Justice ruled<\/a> the 2017 measures that been imposed on \u2018foreign\u2019 universities by the Orban government were contra to EU Law. The measures, a thinly veiled attack on the Central European University which is supported by the regime\u2019s scapegoat in chief, George Soros, had already forced largely to decamp to Vienna. What effect the ECJ judgement has on the ground remains to be seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On these and many other infractions the question will remain for the EU27 how and whether a defence of democracy can be successfully mounted and whether the political will exists to hold the Fidesz and PiS regimes to account by waving the financial stick the new regulations have provided. Even were it to be the case that sanctions were accelerated, centre-left EU politicians are committed to potential financial sanction not affecting the intended recipients of EU cohesion largesse \u2013 in other words not punishing populations. It is impossible not to conclude that this well intentioned approach reduces the potential leverage of EU leaders on recalcitrant regimes. EU politicians will see the approach as humane \u2013 Orban and Co will see it as weak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While implementing financial sanction remains complex and fraught with practical difficulties of EU process, the supposed realpolitik dilemma<\/a> remains: ensure that the Poles<\/a> and Hungarians<\/a> remain within the EU\u2019s sphere of influence or risk pushing them toward that of Vladimir Putin. This nonetheless begs the question of what, exactly, is the EU\u2019s sphere of influence for if it is not to defend the values of democracy and freedom?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plain fact is this. Were Poland and Hungary today seeking to join the European Union they would be required to address issues of media and academic freedom, market restrictions, state intervention and individual liberties around gender equality. Many of the same criteria have been used to all but terminate accession negotiations<\/a> with Erdogan\u2019s Turkey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While another supposedly existential crisis for the EU has passed much more smoothly than the perennial doom mongers had forecast, the slow burning crisis of European democracy continues to smoulder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However to focus entirely on the negative possibilities would be wrong. As outlined previously<\/a>, the MFF package makes considerable strides in the development of EU programme financing, the creation of modest sovereign debt and budgetary flexibility and commitments to move toward a more sustainable framework for future EU financing through new \u2018own resources\u2019 revenue streams<\/a> not dependent on member state governments and domestically contentious GNI-related contributions. Turning these wordy commitments to practical reality in anything like the timescale envisaged remains a risk, but, if grasped effectively, one offering considerable reward to the 27 governments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So it came to pass. The EU\u2019s 7 year budget framework (MFF) was approved by the Council. Hungary and Poland effectively conceded their position, having known from the outset that the Article 7 sanction measures on rule of law conditionality that had been approved separately by qualified majority could not be revisited and that inflicting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":105,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pwbpolicy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pwbpolicy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pwbpolicy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pwbpolicy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pwbpolicy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/pwbpolicy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":315,"href":"http:\/\/pwbpolicy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312\/revisions\/315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pwbpolicy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pwbpolicy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pwbpolicy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pwbpolicy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}