UE leaders reach agreement on aid program to rebuild the economies after Covid-19

The recovery package will ultimately amount to €750 billion, a large part of which will be borrowed on the capital markets. For the first time in history, the European Union will act as a bond issuer on the markets, that is, as if it were a nation state. This is another small step towards greater integration.

Emmanuel Macron said it was "an historic day for Europe." It was also the second-longest summit in the history of the European Council summits, second only to the Nice summit in 2000.

At the meeting that ended this morning, the country leaders also agreed on another seven-year EU budget, which will amount to €1.074 trillion.

As Deutsche Welle writes, Poland in this entire financial package includes a total of around €125 billion in subsidies from the EU budget and the Reconstruction Fund, i.e. around PLN 557 billion, and in addition €34 billion in cheap loans. These are record high funds for our country, which has been receiving signals from the EU for many months that it will be the biggest beneficiary again.

What about the rule of law? Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki with Victor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary, said that a direct link between the rule of law and budgetary resources had not been developed and that such a mechanism was yet to be developed and would require the unanimous consent of EU heads of government.

However, most media and commentators say otherwise.

“For the first time, the rule of law will be the decisive criterion for spending from the EU budget. It was an ambitious decision to introduce such conditionality," Charles Michel, President of the European Council, said.

"The provisions on linking payments to the rule of law have been watered down in relation to the version proposed by the European Commission, but it looks like such a link has been approved and will not require unanimity in the European Council," Santander economists wrote.

(300gospodarka, PAP)