Negotiations with the EU Council on the 'Rights and Values' programme for the period 2021-2027 (see EUROPE 12030) have made a real breakthrough, said European Parliament rapporteur Bodil Valero (Greens/EFA, Sweden) on Monday 25 February.
At the last trilogue held on 20 February last, the Member States agreed to negotiate on the new part of the programme aimed at supporting civil society organisations promoting European values, as requested by Parliament, she said during a review of the negotiations in Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee (LIBE).
She explained that several other horizontal points had been completed, including issues related to citizen participation and the civil dialogue group.
Nevertheless, one point continues to be the subject of "heavy resistance" on the part of the Council, namely the values support mechanism (see EUROPE 12157) that Parliament intends to defend at all costs.
It provides that, in exceptional cases, when there is a serious and rapid deterioration of a situation in a Member State and fundamental values are threatened, the European Commission may launch a call for proposals under an accelerated procedure in order to finance civil society organisations and facilitate and support democratic dialogue in that country.
Dutch MEP Sophie in't Veld (ALDE) said she was "surprised" that the European Commission "dominates" the discussions so much, much more so than the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU.
She thus asked Parliament negotiators to "keep in mind" that it is with the Council that we must negotiate and not with the European Commission, which "pushes its own agenda" and is also not in favour of the values support mechanism. According to her, if the final agreement did not include this mechanism, the programme would be much weaker than Parliament's initial ambition.
The rapporteur has committed to do everything in his power to defend Parliament's position during the next trilogue scheduled for 6 March, which could be conclusive.
"I cannot imagine we will get the exact text, but I asked for some creative solutions" she assured her colleagues. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)