Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the European Parliament will hold its first "hybrid" or "dematerialised" session on Thursday 26 March, with a small number of MEPs in attendance for debate and remote voting. The agenda will focus entirely on the three measures announced by the Commission to combat the epidemic.
MEPs will first be asked to vote on the entry into force of a temporary derogation from the common rules on the allocation of slots at European airports.
In order to provide support to air carriers, faced with a sharp drop in demand due to the COVID-19 epidemic, the European Commission proposed on 13 March (see EUROPE 12446/4) that airlines should be able to temporarily derogate from the so-called "80/20" rule on take-off and landing slots (see EUROPE 12445/3).
The European Parliament will also be asked to vote by written procedure on the Corona Response Investment Initiative (CRII) and on amendments to the EU Solidarity Fund (EUSF), both tabled by the Chair of the Regional Development Committee, French MEP Younous Omarjee (GUE/NGL).
€37 billion of public investment to counter the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic. The institution thus waives, for 2020, the obligation to request reimbursement of unspent pre-financing for the European Structural and Investment Funds (EFSF) that has already been paid to Member States. This represents a total sum of €8 billion.
This, through the leverage effect of European co-financing, should make it possible to obtain an additional €29 billion. This proposal requires a revision of the Regulation laying down common provisions between the EFSIs. The Member States that would benefit most from this aid would be: Spain (€1.16 billion), Poland (€1.12 billion), Hungary (€855 million) and Italy (€853 million).
As regards the EU Solidarity Fund, the Commission proposes to amend the Regulation to extend the scope of EUSF support to health emergencies and to modify certain specific eligible operations (such as providing assistance to the affected population and protecting the population against the risk of contamination).
Furthermore, the proposal provides for an increase in advances up to 25% of the European contribution, instead of the 10% currently provided for. The institution also suggests including additional resources of up to €50 million in the 2020 budget, again with a view to increasing the resources immediately available for advance payments.
It should be noted that the changes to the EFSI are only for the year 2020, while the changes to the EUSF are permanent.
A vote in line with the Council's position
The plenary session falls entirely under the emergency procedure laid down in Parliament's Rules of Procedure (Article 163). The voting arrangements shall remain those laid down by the group chairmen and the Bureau (see EUROPE 12452/19)
Voting will take place remotely, using a paper printout of a ballot paper on which each MEP will write their three votes, one vote per measure. Each ballot will be scanned or photographed and then sent to the Parliamentary services for processing. A long procedure, but one that avoids any hacking. The end of the session should be around 11pm.
The European Parliament decided to use the urgency procedure, allowing it to skip the parliamentary committee stage. Also wishing to avoid the inter-institutional negotiations ("trilogues"), MEPs considered it preferable for measures in the field of transport to present the same amendments as the Council, details a European source. For the other two measures in the field of cohesion policy, the Council did not add any amendments.
As all the groups have announced that they support the position of the Member States, the adoption of a position identical to that of the Council tomorrow in plenary should not be a problem.
The group chairmen will meet informally on Wednesday evening by videoconference to take stock of the organisation of the plenary sessions and the preparation of the European Council on Thursday 26 March.
Any new measures in sight?
Member States' ambassadors to the EU, for their part, already gave the green light last week, having requested a series of additional measures from the European Commission (see EUROPE 12449/7).
As regards measures in the field of transport, the Member States' Ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) have spoken in favour of this derogation. However, they adopted an amendment providing that this covers the period from 23 January to 24 October 2020 (see EUROPE 12451/18). The institution agreed to use a written procedure to definitively adopt its position. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens and Agathe Cherki)