On the evening of Wednesday, 6 March, representatives of the European Parliament and the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU reached a provisional agreement on the 'Rights and values' programme for the period 2021-2027 (see EUROPE 12030/12).
According to a European source, the final trilogue confirmed that support for civil society organisations promoting European values would be included as the programme’s fourth objective, alongside the objectives promoting equality and rights, citizen engagement and participation in democratic life, and combating violence (see EUROPE 12201/15).
However, according to the same source, the agreement will not include the Values Support Mechanism (see EUROPE 12157/10) put forward by Parliament, despite the commitment of the rapporteur, Bodil Valero (Greens/EFA, Sweden).
In exceptional cases where there is a serious and rapid deterioration of a situation in a Member State and fundamental values are threatened, this mechanism would have allowed the European Commission to issue a call for proposals under an accelerated procedure in order to fund civil society organisations and facilitate and support democratic dialogue in that country.
The agreement is only provisional, as the budgetary elements have yet to be resolved in the horizontal negotiations on the multiannual financial framework for 2021-2027. MEPs have aimed high and want the budget allocated to the programme (see EUROPE 12174/2) to be trebled. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)