Hungarian PM claims EU win but rule-of-law dispute not over

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary’s prime minister on Friday touted what he called his victory at the European Union summit, where the bloc's leaders decided on a massive seven-year budget and coronavirus recovery plan, but acknowledged he did not achieve his goal of de-linking EU funds from rule of law considerations.

Hungary and Poland, two nations led by right-wing populist governments, are both in the midst of EU proceedings over concerns that they are violating EU standards with laws and practices that threaten the independence of judges and press freedoms, and could face sanctions. At the marathon EU summit that ended Tuesday, leaders had debated tying receiving EU funds to demands that member nations follow EU democratic standards but did not explicitly do so.

“Polish and Hungarians ... thwarted the attempt of others deciding about the money due to us," Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Friday on state radio about the EU deal worth just over 1.8 trillion euros ($2 trillion) in which Hungary and Poland were considered to be among the greatest beneficiaries.

At the end of the summit, Orban said “any attempt to make a connection between the rule of law and the budget was ... successfully rejected,” but on Friday he acknowledged the issue is far from settled.

“We didn’t win the war but simply only a very important battle,” Orban said.

According to news site portfolio.hu, Hungary may get as much as 52.8 billion euros ($61.3 billion) from the EU in the seven-year budget period starting in 2021, about 35% more than in the last budget.

Orban arrived at the EU summit with a resolution from the Hungarian parliament demanding, among other things, an end to an EU sanctioning process launched against Hungary in 2018 due to rule of law concerns.

But German...