The ambassadors of the Member States to the EU (Coreper) analysed, on Wednesday 3 February, the outcome of the negotiations between the Council of the EU and the European Parliament on the ‘Rights and Values’ programme and the ‘Justice’ programme for the period 2021-2027, both part of the new EU Justice, Rights and Values Fund (see EUROPE 12030/12).
Partial agreements on the main outlines of the programmes had already been reached in March 2019 (see EUROPE 12207/9, 12209/6) while the budgetary aspects were settled in December 2020 (see EUROPE 12626/6).
The meeting was mainly aimed at presenting the final texts, a European source explained to us, and only a few Member States took the floor. Overall, the Member States approved the outcome of the negotiations, said the source.
In order to reach these agreements, the EU Council had to make some concessions, according to a note from the Portuguese Presidency prepared for the meeting and seen by EUROPE.
As for the ‘Justice’ programme, which aims to foster the establishment of a European area of justice based on mutual trust and which has a budget of 305 million euros in current prices, a margin of flexibility has notably been granted to support, as a priority, actions to promote the Rule of law.
Parliament also insisted on the introduction of an additional reporting obligation for the Commission on the performance of the programme within the framework of existing mechanisms, in particular the EU Justice Scoreboard.
Nevertheless, “these limited concessions allowed to achieve the most important objective of the EU Council, to secure the governance of the programme, with the use of implementing acts for the adoption of the work programme” the institution writes.
On Parliament’s end, the Committees on Civil Liberties (LIBE) and Legal Affairs (JURI) will vote on these agreements on Thursday 4 February. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)