On Monday 29 March, the European Commission expressed their confidence that the ratification process of the decision on the EU budget’s own resources – which makes the €750 billion Next Generation EU Recovery Plan a reality – will continue smoothly.
To everyone’s surprise, the German Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe decided on Friday 26 March to suspend Germany’s ratification process of the ‘own resources’ decision as the result of an appeal lodged against the European Recovery Plan (see EUROPE 12687/11).
The Supreme Court had decided that the legislation relating to this plan, which had just been approved by German MPs by a very large majority, “should not be signed by the Head of State”, pending a decision on this appeal for interim measures. A complaint has been filed by one of the co-founders of the far-right AfD party, who opposes the ‘financial transfers’ between countries provided for under the scheme.
“We have taken note of the decision made by the German Constitutional Court regarding the EU own resources decision. We are convinced about the legality of this decision”, a Commission spokesperson said.
The decision needs to be ratified by all EU countries; by this stage, 16 countries have done so according to the Commission. See the state of play of the ratification process: http://bit.ly/2LVvObj
“We note that the validity of the own resources decision has not been put in question by the German constitutional court. The Commission is confident that the German constitutional court will decide swiftly on the interim measures case. The EU objective remains to ensure the completion of the ratification process in all Member States by the end of the second quarter of this year”, the spokesperson added.
In response to a question from the press about whether the Commission feared that there would be a possible delay in releasing aid under the European Recovery Plan, the institution’s spokesperson retorted: “We are not afraid of anything. The Recovery Plan will be launched as planned and the aim is to complete the ratification process by the end of the second quarter”. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)