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| - Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban accused his Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte on Sunday of hating him personally and wanting to punish his country, as EU leaders clashed over budget reform. Most European leaders want to tie EU budget payments to recipient states upholding EU legal standards, a move seen as a danger to Hungary, where Orban is accused of creeping authoritarianism. The 27 leaders are in Brussels on the third day of a tense summit on a coronavirus recovery package and the longer-term EU budget, and Orban has been joined by Poland and Slovenia is resisting the rule of law reform. But, speaking to reporters ahead of what has been billed as the decisive final day of wrangling, Orban insisted he was not opposed to an eventual reform -- just that it would take time. And he launched an attack on Rutte, accusing him of a personal vendetta. "I don't know what is the personal reason for the Dutch prime minister to hate me or Hungary. But he is attacking so harshly and making very clear that because Hungary in his opinion does not respect the rule of law it must be punished financially," Orban said. "That's his position, which is not acceptable, because there is no decision about what is the rule of law situation in Hungary." The European Parliament has launched an inquiry under Article 7 of the EU treaty into the situation in Hungary and Orban's government could, in theory, eventually lose some EU voting rights if it is found to have breached legal norms. Orban would prefer that any decision be made by the European Council of national EU leaders, where he can count on the support of allies like Poland. And he has said that he would veto any attempts to link the rule of law to the EU budget at Sunday's summit. "We are ready and I initiated anyway a proposal just during this summit, to ask the Germans to give a guarantee that the European Council of EU will negotiate and make a decision on the rule of law procedure against Hungary," Orban said. "Do it please, instead of creating a new mechanism, complete what we already have and what was initiated, so please make a decision on Hungary as soon as you can." The measure to attach a rule of law clause to the budget has broad support among the leaders and EU institutions, and a European diplomat confirmed that Rutte and Finland's Sanna Marin were defending it against Orban. "I don't think this summit will collapse over money," the diplomat said, citing the Rutte-Orban clash as a sticking point. "The problem is that these issues are fundamental and won't be solved by just having a second summit." dc/pdw/wdb
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