Dacian Cioloş, President of the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament, called, on Wednesday 29 July, on the German Presidency of the EU Council to accelerate work between Member States “on the 2018 Commission proposal aiming at the protection of the Union's budget in case of generalised deficiencies as regards the Rule of law in the Member States”.
The German Presidency indicated that it intended to resume discussions with the European Parliament on this proposal after the summer break (see EUROPE 12536/3).
At the same time, the German Presidency plans to start negotiations with the European Parliament on the MFF 2021-2027 and the EU Recovery Plan (see EUROPE 12538/3) towards the end of August.
“The European Parliament is ready to start trilogues. This is a key element for the swift adoption of the next Multiannual Financial Framework”, writes Dacian Cioloş in a letter to Michael Roth, Minister of State for Europe, a letter which covers other topics related to the rule of law (see other news).
In its resolution of 23 July, the European Parliament regretted that the European Council had weakened the efforts of the Commission and the Parliament to ensure respect for the Rule of law, fundamental rights and democracy in the framework of the MFF and the ‘Next Generation EU’ instrument. MEPs call on the co-legislator to complete work on the mechanism proposed by the Commission to protect the Union's budget “where there is a systemic threat to the values enshrined in Article 2 of the EU Treaty and the financial interests of the Union are at stake”. They insist that, to be effective, this mechanism needs to be activated by a reverse qualified majority.
The European Council agreement provides for a cross-compliance scheme to protect the budget and Next Generation EU. But the Commission would propose measures, in the event of failure to do so, “adopted by the EU Council acting by qualified majority”.
To consult the letter: https://bit.ly/39Mtg6T (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)