The parliamentary committees on regional development (REGI) and economic and monetary affairs (ECON) want to set in place a scrutiny group in the framework of the structured dialogue with the European Commission on the freezing of the structural and investment funds (ESI funds) for Spain and Portugal, according to a source EUROPE spoke to on Thursday 8 September.
This group will consist of 46 members of Parliament: two chairs, 20 members from two committees selected using the d'Hondt method, plus the chairs (or alternates) of four other parliamentary committees. The group will hold two meetings with the European Commission.
When contacted by EUROPE for comments, Younous Omarjee (GUE/NGL, France), deputy chair of the REGI committee, repeated his opposition to any suspension. If suspension should be decided upon, the Commission should announce this to the MEPs in October, he said. He feels that it is extremely important for his committee to adopt a "very strong position" on the procedure, "as this is the first time that the dialogue laid down in Article 23 (of the regulation on common provisions – Regulation 1303/2013) has been applied". "We are setting a precedent, and so the Parliament should have maximum involvement", which could take the form of a resolution, he went on. The MEP has always been resolutely against macro-economic conditions (see EUROPE 11595).
In July, the Commission made a recommendation in favour of simply cancelling the sanctions between the two member states under proceedings for failing to reabsorb their excessive budgetary deficits (see EUROPE 11602), which was then approved by the Council in August (see EUROPE 11605). (Original in French by Pascal Hansens)