The members of the European Parliament plan to bulk out the proposal on protecting the EU budget post-2020 in the event of generalised failings in the rule of law in a member state, whilst setting in place safeguards to protect the end beneficiaries of EU funding (see EUROPE 12013).
On 27 November, the budgets committee and its budgetary control counterpart will vote jointly on the draft report by Eider Gardiazabal Rubial (S&D, Spain) and Petri Sarvamaa (EPP, Finland) to institute a mechanism to apply to the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework.
The reporters explained that the amendments introduced at this stage aimed to: - protect the end beneficiaries of EU funding in the event of suspensions, for instance by means of a Commission impact assessment; - extending the scope of application of the text to the fundamental values and Copenhagen criteria (pre-requisites that candidate countries must fulfil to join the EU) when assessing the risk of a rule of law deficiency.
Gardiazabal Rubial also hopes to include fraud and tax evasion.
The MEPs hope to negotiate with the Council in early 2019, but "we may come up against considerable resistance", warned Ingeborg Grässle (EPP, Germany), chair of the European Parliament's budgetary control committee.
On Tuesday 16 October, the General Affairs Council will discuss the 'article 7' of the Treaty procedure on the rule of law in Hungary (see other article). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)