Interinstitutional negotiations between the European Parliament and the EU Council, although they have made some progress on some technical aspects, stumbled over macroeconomic conditions on the morning of Thursday 15 October.
“We have reaffirmed our positions this morning and few agreements have been reached between the German EU Council Presidency and the European Parliament”, said the Chair of the European Parliament Committee on Regional Development (REGI), Younous Omarjee (GUE/NGL, France), on social networks. The MEP explained that the two co-legislators have stuck to their position: the Parliament wants macro-conditionality to be repealed and the EU Council wants it to be maintained (even if among member states these conditions are not unanimous (see EUROPE 12574/15).
“I have called on the EU Council to abandon these rules. Refusal. The EU Council has asked us to accept them: we refuse. So, no agreement this morning on this and other issues. Negotiations are ongoing”, concluded Mr Omarjee.
More flexible Commission on macroeconomic conditions?
The European Commission, which was represented by a senior official, given that the Commissioner for Cohesion and Reform, Elisa Ferreira, is in quarantine, is reported to have said that it wanted to help find a solution.
The Commissioner would, however, be open on the issue of macro-conditionalities. Questioned by EUROPE at a press briefing at the opening of the Week of Regions and Cities at the beginning of the week, she acknowledged that the situation had changed drastically with the coronavirus and that the question of macroeconomic conditions needed to be analysed.
As a reminder, the macroeconomic conditions make funding under cohesion policy conditional on compliance with the European Union's economic governance rules.
Progress on the disengagement rule
There was, however, some progress at the last negotiating meeting, notably on the issue of the disengagement rule, where the European Parliament and the EU Council agreed on an N+3 rule (3 years to disburse), except for the year 2029, where we are told that the N+2 rule would apply.
Annex 22 on the distribution key for the national envelopes was only briefly touched upon and no decision was taken. It will be discussed at a future meeting, probably in late October or early November. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)