Michael Roth, the German Deputy Minister for European Affairs, said on Tuesday 22 September that he hoped an agreement with the European Parliament on the Economic Recovery Plan and the EU’s multi-annual financial framework (MFF) for 2021-2027 could be reached by the end of October (see EUROPE 12563/5).
In the run-up to the final negotiations with Parliament on the MFF and the Recovery Plan, the EU Ministers for European Affairs have, as it were, presented their red lines.
Without Parliament’s agreement, there can be neither a PSC nor a Recovery Plan, Mr Roth warned his counterparts in the EU General Affairs Council.
Michael Roth stressed the need to negotiate as a package (MFF, Recovery Plan, mechanism to protect the EU budget against rule of law failures).
With regard to Parliament’s requests for additional funds for 15 programmes, it would have to be seen whether “additional resources” could be made available, Mr Roth noted, or whether rebalancing could be found between the MFF headings.
Several delegations, including Denmark, Sweden, and Poland, insisted on the need not to reopen the agreement of 21 July tied up at European Council level.
‘Rule of law’ mechanism. The German Council Presidency does not yet have a mandate to discuss this rule of law conditionality with Parliament, “but we are working on it, because an agreement between the Council and the Parliament is absolutely necessary”, Mr Roth said. “Parliament will not be satisfied with promises from us”, he warned.
The Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France have defended an effective mechanism to protect the EU budget against a failure to uphold the rule of law.
Sweden, Finland, and the Netherlands insisted on a mechanism providing for qualified majority voting in the Council.
“In our budget, we need mechanisms to verify that the fundamental values of the EU are respected”, said Clément Beaune, the French Secretary of State for European Affairs, on his arrival at the Council.
Finnish Minister Tytti Tuppurainen also called for a “strong rule of law mechanism” and said that this mechanism should not be weakened.
In Poland’s view, the 2018 proposal on the rule of law should not be used as a basis and a mechanism should not be introduced that “bypasses” the European treaties. Hungary said that this conditionality should be of a financial nature and that the European Council conclusions should be translated at a lower level.
“We are not going to reinvent the wheel, whatever is put in place will be in line with the EU Treaties and EU legislation”, concluded Mr Roth.
Own resources. France recalled that the national parliaments had to ratify the Own Resources Decision. “The timetable of proposals and discussions must be speeded up”, said France. Italy also asked for further discussions on own resources. Poland opposed any new own resource based on an ETS mechanism.
Belgium has requested a mechanism to help the countries most affected by Brexit. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)