The challenges at European level regarding the effects of the coronavirus pandemic demonstrate the need for Member States to agree on the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2021-2027, the European Commission reiterated on Tuesday 24 March.
The COVID-19 crisis will likely further delay the moment when the Heads of State or Government of the Twenty-Seven will be able to make another attempt to negotiate an agreement on this delicate dossier, after the failure of the extraordinary meeting of the European Council in February (see EUROPE 12443/3).
But according to the Commission’s chief spokesman Eric Mamer, “dealing with the consequences of the coronavirus crisis will not be possible from 2020-2021 if we do not have a rapidly agreed budget for the 2021-2027 period”.
This is, according to the Commission, “the only way to ensure that the EU can continue to meet the challenges”. Whatever the next step is, “the essential element is that the national positions of the Member States align, to show that the EU can act in unity”, Mr Mamer added.
He recalled that the Commission would not have been able to provide a European response to the COVID-19 crisis without the financial means of the 2014-2020 MFF.
The Commission has proposed to allocate €37 billion under cohesion policy to fight the pandemic (see EUROPE 12446/2).
The European Parliament, for its part, hopes that the Commission will present an ‘emergency plan’ to extend the financial resources for 2020 to 2021, in view of the delays in the negotiations at the highest level on the next MFF (see EUROPE 12448/21). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)