The Hungarian prime minister insisted that the EU budget and rule of law must be separated. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Friday that a possible compromise to unblock a stalemate over the EU's €1.8 trillion budget-and-recovery package "will not work," lowering hopes that it might open a path to a deal.

Hungary and Poland have blocked the spending plan over their opposition to a new mechanism linking EU funding to respect for rule of law criteria, fuelling tensions ahead of a meeting of EU heads of state and government next week.

Nevertheless, on Thursday Polish Deputy Prime Minister Jarosław Gowin said Warsaw could potentially accept a "binding interpretation declaration" — approved by the bloc's 27 heads of state and government — to clarify how Brussels would use the mechanism.

But on Friday morning, a Polish government spokesperson reiterated that Warsaw "maintains its position in its entirety."

"Only provisions consistent with the treaties and conclusions of the European Council may be accepted by Poland," the spokesperson continued, pouring cold water on the notion that Gowin's comments hinted at a possible way forward in the weeks-long stalemate.

When asked by state-owned Kossuth Rádió about the Polish deputy prime minister's statement, Hungary's Orbán dismissed the declaration as unworkable. He said the Hungarian government "insists" that the issues of funding and the rule of law be separated. While the Hungarian leader had agreed in July to European Council conclusions which had mentioned the rule of law mechanism, Budapest and Warsaw have interpreted the text differently from their counterparts in other European capitals.

Speaking of an idea — floated by the European Commission — to move ahead with creating a new recovery fund without Budapest and Warsaw, the Hungarian leader questioned whether such a solution would be possible under the bloc's rules and said that Hungary's planned participation in the recovery fund currently on the table is a "favor" and "gesture of solidarity" to other member countries.

The prime minister also argued Hungary would not lose out financially if the bloc's 2021-2027 EU budget is not adopted on time. That is disputed by EU officials who say the country would experience funding cuts and delayed payments if the bloc is forced to start 2021 with a limited backup budget.

Referring to the U.K.'s decision this week to approve the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, Orbán implied that the country was able to move faster because of Brexit, raising questions for Brussels that go beyond the pandemic.

A country that left the bloc and sought its own way "can protect the health and life of its citizens sooner than us who stayed inside," the prime minister said.
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