On Wednesday 19 December, the Member States' ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) endorsed the Rights and Values programme, which aims to provide financial support for projects promoting equality and rights, and the Justice programme, which promotes the establishment of a European sphere of justice based on mutual recognition and trust, for the period 2021-2027 (see EUROPE 12030).
Overall, the Council's texts contain very few changes compared to the Commission's initial proposals.
Like the European Parliament, the Council also proposes modifying the 'Rights and Values’ programme's name by adding 'Citizens' (). The domain of citizenship, which is currently covered by two different programmes, will now be covered by this new programme.
It should be noted that these are only 'partial' general approaches, since the financial envelope of €947 million for the two programmes has yet to be validated in the context of the Council's discussions on the EU's multiannual financial framework.
The Parliament, which adopted its position in mid-December (), proposed tripling the budget allocated to the ‘Rights and Values’ programme to a total budget of €1.834 billion in current prices, three times more than the €642 million proposed by the European Commission. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)