Belgian MEP Pascal Arimont (EPP, Belgium) was appointed rapporteur on the Brexit adjustment reserve fund (see EUROPE 12628/6), following a meeting of the coordinators of the European Parliament Regional Development Committee (REGI) on Thursday 14 January. He will also be the rapporteur of the opinion on the EU-United Kingdom agreement.
During his speech, the rapporteur indicated that he intended to move quickly to bring the European Commission’s proposal to a successful conclusion, indicating that he wanted to conclude the negotiations under the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The desire to move quickly was shared by all the speakers: Constanze Krehl (S&D, Germany) warned against any attempt by the Parliament to turn the European Commission’s proposal into a “Christmas tree”, while REGI committee chair Younous Omarjee (La Gauche, France) said they would work urgently, as they did for REACT-EU.
The proposal was presented to MEPs by the Director General of DG Regional and Urban Policy (REGIO), Marc Lemaître. He explained that the cardinal principles that guided the European Commission in drawing up this proposal were speed, simplicity and flexibility.
Thus, of the €5 billion planned, 80% will be made available to Member States in the form of pre-financing for the year 2021. However, Member States will have to justify their expenditure ex-post. The last billion will be retained for 2024. The amounts not used for pre-financing will be allocated in the additional payment in 2024.
All Member States are eligible. Eligible amounts will be eligible from 1 July 2020 to 31 December 2022. The retroactivity of the instrument responds to the expenditure already incurred by Member States to deal with the effects of Brexit. The senior official pointed out that the criteria were very different from those commonly used in cohesion policy.
The Commission has sought to avoid any form of programming in order to make the financial assistance more fluid. The distribution key will be calculated on the basis of the interdependence of Member States with the UK economy (80% of the €4 billion pre-financing) and the level of fishing activities in UK waters. The relative prosperity of the Member State will also be taken into account. A capping system is planned.
Mr Lemaître indicated that the Committee had presented an amending budget for 2021 to take account of this reserve. He said he hoped for an agreement in the course of 2021.
Opinion of the REGI Committee. Mr Arimont is also rapporteur on the EU/UK agreement. The resolution will be short, given the importance of cohesion policy in the framework of the agreement with the United Kingdom, he said. For him, the most important thing is that the PEACE Programme is maintained with an adequate budget. The rapporteur regretted that the United Kingdom is currently refusing to participate in other Interreg programmes.
To see the proposal on the reserve fund: https://bit.ly/38g1jW8 (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)