Sources: EU close to sealing major budget, virus fund deal

BRUSSELS (AP) — EU nations were heading Wednesday for a compromise deal with recalcitrant members Hungary and Poland over the bloc's landmark 1.82 trillion-euro ($2.21 trillion) long-term budget and coronavirus recovery package, and its controversial linkage to respect for the rule of law.

One diplomat of an European Union nation said “a happy end is in the making," with the relentless work of Germany, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, paying off only hours before the 27-nation bloc's year-end summit, starting Thursday.

The stimulus package is crucial for many European countries whose economies have been devastated by the pandemic. But Poland and Hungary, which agreed on the deal in July, then vetoed the package because of a new mechanism that would allow Brussels to cut off EU funds to countries that violate the bloc’s democratic standards.

Both Hungary and Poland, which have conservative, nationalist governments that have been accused of undermining judicial independence and media freedoms, have said they fear the EU mechanism will be used to punish their values.

But just days after it appeared that their 25 EU partners might go it alone and create a coronavirus recovery package without them, EU Council President Charles Michel, who'll chair the summit, was upbeat, saying in his letter inviting leaders to Brussels: “I am confident that we can find an agreement on a common package."

Already on Tuesday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban had predicted that “we have a good chance to close this case this week during the summit meeting on Thursday. We are just one centimeter away.”

In Poland on Wednesday, parliament Deputy Speaker Ryszard Terlecki, who is a prominent member of the ruling party, said that “budget negotiations are ongoing, but it seems that we will reach an agreement that will...