While the conclusions of the last European Council did in fact state that the EU Recovery Plan, Next Generation EU, and the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2021-2017 will contribute to the European Green Deal, it remains unclear how the EU intends to put this into practice.
According to the agreement reached on Tuesday 21 July between EU Heads of State or Government (see EUROPE 12532/2), the recovery and resilience plans drawn up by the Member States setting out their reform and investment programmes for the years 2021-2023 should provide an “effective contribution to the green and digital transition”.
It is a “pre-condition to a positive assessment [of the plans by the European Commission] ”, the document itself states, but without providing further details.
However, in its initial proposal for a recovery plan, presented on 27 May (see EUROPE 12494/2), the Commission planned to assess the conformity of the national recovery and resilience plans with, in particular, the National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) and the National Just Transition Plans (see EUROPE 12496/12).
While the recovery plan proposed by the Commission had itself been criticised by environmental NGOs mainly because of the lack of real ‘green conditionality’ aimed at preventing Member States from investing in fossil fuels or supporting polluting industries without social and environmental compensation (see EUROPE 12496/12), this reference to PNECs and National Just Transition Plans no longer even appears in the European Council conclusions.
Asked by EUROPE about this absence, a Commission spokesperson reiterated that national recovery plans will have to be aligned with European priorities, namely the Green Deal, digitisation and resilience, but again without giving further details.
Wishing for more clarity in this respect, the European Parliament, for its part, stressed “the need for the rapid adoption of a transparent, detailed and effective method of monitoring [...] climate and biodiversity expenses”, in its resolution adopted last Thursday (see EUROPE 12534/2).
Calling for a “progressive removal of fossil fuel subsidies”, the European Parliament calls in particular on the Commission to consider using the rules of the European taxonomy to determine which investments will be eligible for EU funding under the recovery plan.
Finally, it should be noted that the European Court of Auditors published a report on 2 July recommending that the Commission review the method of monitoring EU climate-related expenses (see EUROPE 12519/10). (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)