MEPs once again said, at the European Parliament plenary session on Tuesday 6 July, that future guidelines for the application of the general regime of conditionality for the protection of the Union budget were unnecessary. They also asked the Commission to apply this regime now, as the relevant Regulation entered into force on 1 January 2021.
On Wednesday 7 July, the Parliament will adopt a report (https://bit.ly/3ABgULK ) on these guidelines on the ‘Rule of Law Regulation’ (see EUROPE 12753/4).
“The guidelines are not legally binding and they cannot modify, extend or limit the text of the Regulation”, reiterated Eider Gardiazabal Rubial (S&D, Spain), rapporteur on the dossier.
“The Commission did not respect the deadline we asked for, which we obviously regret, when there was plenty of time to present draft guidelines in March”, said the MEP. According to her, everything could have been ready by 1 June.
Furthermore, Ms Gardiazabal Rubial asked the Commission to examine now, under the Regulation, “both individual breaches of the principles of the Rule of law and systematic or generalised violations”. “Furthermore, we also believe that we should give civil society and NGOs the opportunity to provide the Commission with this information”. Ms Gardiazabal Rubial insisted, as did other MEPs, on the importance of protecting the final beneficiaries in any decisions on the suspension of EU funds.
Petri Sarvamaa (EPP, Finland) called on the Commission to act quickly. “Once again, we express our concern about the degeneration and regression of the Rule of law in some Member States, notably in Hungary and Poland”, said the MEP.
He said that ultimately it is up to the Member States to decide “how to respond to the increasing deterioration of the Rule of law in Europe”.
According to Mr Sarvamaa, next autumn “is the last opportunity to concretely engage the process of the Rule of Law Regulation, by sending written notifications to the Member States concerned. There is no need to wait for the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union and there is no obligation to do so”.
The Commission is at work. “No case will be forgotten”, said the EU Commissioner for Budget, Johannes Hahn. The Commission “has been actively working to assess information from all sources in view of building up a robust case, robust cases, and initiating the procedure under Article 6 of the Regulation”, the Commissioner promised. Notification letters will be sent “without any delay as soon as we have gathered concrete evidence that the conditions required by the Regulation are fulfilled”, Mr Hahn added. He then detailed the guidelines, a draft of which was distributed to the European Parliament and to EU countries.
The Commission has received the letter from the European Parliament calling for a full and immediate application of the Regulation. “The Commission will react appropriately, within the timeframe foreseen by the Treaties”, assured the Commissioner for Budget, for whom the Commission has ensured proper application of the Regulation “since the day it entered into force”. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)