The Recovery and Resilience Facility, the instrument at the heart of the Next Generation EU European Recovery Plan submitted this week for the approval of MEPs, was described as a historic turning point in the construction of Europe, a symbol of unity and solidarity of the European Union towards citizens weakened by the Covid-19 pandemic, Tuesday 9 February, during a debate in the European Parliament (see EUROPE 12626/1).
The Facility is “the symbol of a vision for Europe” and demonstrates how Europeans can unite to defend the general interest, considered Dragoș Pîslaru (Renew Europe, Romania), co-rapporteur on the proposal for a regulation establishing this instrument with €672.5 billion (€312.5 billion in grants and €360 billion in loans). “Our message is clear: EU support is on its way”, said Siegfried Mureșan (EPP, Romania), another Parliament co-rapporteur.
On the left side of the political spectrum, the focus was on the contrast with the EU’s response to the public debt crisis in the euro area in 2012. Ernest Urtasun (Greens/EFA, Spain) and Eider Gardiazabal Rubial (S&D, Spain) welcomed the fact that “we are turning the page on austerity”.
The group The Left certainly recognises the substantial nature of the financial aid to come, even if the Frenchwoman Manon Aubry would have preferred more subsidies. And Portugal’s José Gusmão felt it was unrealistic to believe that the European Commission would not use the link between the Facility and the ‘European Semester’ budgetary process to put pressure on States to undertake painful structural reforms.
The Facility is “not a cash machine” to finance deficits, as it is intended to trigger investment and structural reforms, which are “a key concept for making economies stronger in the future”, said Mr Mureșan. In the same vein, the Vice-President of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, insisted on the duty to “anchor” the Facility in the ‘European Semester’. “There is a need for Member States to address in their plans at least a significant subset of the challenges identified in the relevant country-specific recommendations”, he said.
Other MEPs stressed the contribution of the European Recovery Plan to the environmental transition, with 37% of the envelope of each national recovery plan to be devoted to it. On behalf of the Environment Committee, Pascal Canfin (Renew Europe, France) recalled that “100% of the money must not harm the climate or the environment” (the ‘do no harm’ principle). He hoped that the loans that the Commission will take out on behalf of the EU27 to finance the European Recovery Plan will be repaid by the “digital giants” and “major polluters” from outside the EU. This will be done through the introduction of a digital levy and a carbon border adjustment mechanism as specific own resources in the EU budget.
On behalf of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU, the Secretary of State for European Affairs, Ana Paula Zacarias, spoke of a budgetary instrument that is “unprecedented” in the history of the EU, due to “its size” (40% of the EU post-2020 budget), the “common debt” that will be issued “albeit on a temporary basis”, the incentive for investment and reforms to pursue an ambitious political agenda for environmental and digital transitions and “the speed” of the negotiations that have led to its creation.
In order for the money to flow to the Member States, they must ratify the decision on own resources in the EU budget, she recalled, although six countries have completed their national procedures at this stage.
Mr Dombrovskis also indicated that the Commission, in parallel with the ongoing discussions with Member States at national level (see EUROPE 12653/10), was working on delegated acts to set up: – “a scoreboard” to inform the public about the progress of the Facility; and – “a methodology” on reporting related to social expenditure.
See the text of the Facility: http://bit.ly/2YUd12S (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)