The plan is supposed to promote the bloc’s “values” which include mass migration, according to proposals seen by the Financial Times.
Brussels now wants to give cash not based on a country’s wealth or GDP, but based on criteria based on “values” such as “youth education”, migration and environmental policy. The plan is part of the European Commission’s draft of 2021-27 EU budget, which will be announced next month.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron have both previously suggested the distribution of EU funds should be linked to the compliance of members in accepting migrants.
The European Commission is planning to shift the criteria for distributing cohesion programme funds away from GDP per capita towards so-called “EU values”, Breitbart reported.
Polish MP, Dominik Tarczynski says this latest “blackmail” plot by Brussels was “not ethical” after the leaks by the FT suggested money could go to countries that allow migrants.
Hungary, as well as Poland have endured criticism from the EU. After voting changes to laws governing NGOs, Hungary has faced demonstrations funded from outside and Poland’s changes to its Constitutional Court, was denounced by Brussels.
One ambassador in Brussels from an EU member state told the Financial Times: “They are trying to fix it against us.”
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s World Tonight, Tarczynski said: “We are a independent sovereign country and we have the right according to the treaty to decide how the judiciary works, how it is organised.
“So, in my opinion, it is not ethical to use money and blackmail some part of the European Union. We are equal. Everyone within the European Union, every single state, has the same rights.”
Currently, the EU functions on the basis of wealthier member states funding poorer members to help with economic development.
Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker declared last year that the union would be “lost” without a huge influx from Africa. It is mostly Italy and Spain that stuggle with the wave of Africans trying to reach the EU.