On Tuesday 6 July, MEPs debated and voted on the programme establishing the Connecting Europe Facility 2.0 (see EUROPE 12748/27).
“We need efficient networks to compete in the global market and we need to have important environmental targets”, said European Parliament rapporteur Henna Virkkunen (EPP, Finland).
The agreement was welcomed by several political groups, but some MEPs - including Mrs Virkkunen - regretted the size of the financial envelope available to carry out the projects related to the Connecting Europe Facility 2.0.
“We are pleased with the agreement reached with the Council, but it is regrettable that the Council was not willing to invest more. It was essential that more investment than the planned 30 billion euros be made”, she said.
“A few years ago, the Commission proposed 50 billion euros. We are at 33 now. You can see that the budget is not enough”, added Marian-Jean Marinescu (EPP, Romania).
Others feel the problem lies with the ambition of the text. The Greens/EFA group called for the negotiators to meet again.
“The planet is burning and we are building car parks. The mechanism should allow us to do things differently. It was born before the European Green Deal and is not aligned. We need to do better. Decarbonisation is not even on the agenda”, insisted Ciarán Cuffe (Greens/EFA, Ireland).
The second part of this programme, covering the 2021-2027 period, will have a budget of 33.71 billion euros. This sum should allow the development of sustainable and efficient transport, digital and energy infrastructures.
Furthermore, 60% of the new mechanism’s budget must be spent on projects that meet the EU’s climate objectives.
See the draft recommendation for the European Parliament’s second reading: https://bit.ly/3dcv3Fb (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)