An interinstitutional Agreement on the revision of the InvestEU programme in light of the Covid-19 pandemic was not to be ruled out on Monday evening, 7 December, despite a trilogue negotiation session that had to be shortened due to the curfew in Brussels (see EUROPE 12595/5).
Among the outstanding issues is the climate change ambition of the future programme, which will take over from the ‘Juncker’ investment plan after 2020. The issue would be less to set a percentage of dedicated expenditure above 30% of the overall envelope, but rather to ensure that investments under the InvestEU programme do not violate the EU’s climate priorities (‘do no significant harm principle’).
Some Member States want to go back on earlier commitments, a parliamentary source said Monday before the start of the trilogue.
Agreement has yet to be reached on the number of investment components. The European Parliament insists on the creation of the two strands devoted to investments in strategic sectors and the solvency of European companies, especially SMEs, which have been put in difficulty by the pandemic (see EUROPE 12591/6).
According to another parliamentary source, MEPs are said to be willing to find a compromise on this issue, provided that support for corporate solvency, proposed by the European Commission at the end of May, is possible even if a dedicated investment strand does not emerge.
The size of the state guarantee granted under InvestEU from the EU budget is linked to the discussions on the number of investment components. MEPs suggest linking the future programme envelope to the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the budgetary instrument at the heart of the Next Generation EU Recovery Plan.
On the text establishing the RRF Facility, interinstitutional negotiations are continuing, with the next trilogue scheduled for Tuesday. One of the controversial points concerns the governance of the Facility, with Parliament calling for it to be placed on an equal footing with the EU Council. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)