On Monday 4 May, the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgets asked the European Commission to present a ‘contingency plan’ for the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) in mid-June. A ‘safety net’ would “protect the beneficiaries of EU programmes” in case the 2021-2027 MFF cannot be adopted in time for it to enter into force on 1 January 2021 (see EUROPE 12448/21).
By adopting the report by Jan Olbrycht (EPP, Poland) and Margarida Marques (S&D, Portugal) on this ‘contingency plan’, MEPs hope the plan will enable the EU to respond to the immediate social and economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and to work towards reviving the EU economy. Parliament’s plenary vote is scheduled for 13 May.
In adopting a compromise amendment, the Committee on Budgets requests that the contingency plan for the MFF aim to: - lift or extend the time limits laid down in the basic acts of all relevant MFF expenditure programmes; - update the relevant financial amounts on the basis of a technical extension of the 2020 levels, where legally necessary, in particular under shared management programmes; - revise the rules and objectives governing the relevant expenditure programmes so that they can be temporarily refocused on addressing the immediate economic and social consequences of Covid-19 and on helping in the economic recovery; - allow for targeted reinforcements to this end, building on the positive measures already taken under the 2020 budget; - setting up the most urgent new instruments as part of the post-Covid-19 recovery package.
In summary, the contingency plan should, according to MEPs, allow for a targeted strengthening of the relevant spending programmes in the 2021 budget and for the most urgent new legislative instruments and programmes to be put in place as part of the Covid-19 post-pandemic recovery plan. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)