MEPs said they expect concrete and “urgent” action from EU leaders on energy prices, which are challenging European households, but also on vaccination, especially at global level, when they meet on Thursday 21 and Friday 22 October in Brussels.
This was the message they sent to Slovenian Foreign Minister Anže Logar and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the morning of Wednesday 20 October, when they also asked them to put pressure on the European Council to act on the dispute with Poland over the Rule of European law.
The Slovenian Minister began by detailing the topics on the agenda of the European Summit, which, in addition to energy and the situation of Covid-19 in the EU, will include trade, the digital agenda and the external dimension of migration. Belarus and possible new sanctions against the country, which is accused of using migrants as a ‘weapon’ against the EU, should also be discussed, the Slovenian minister said.
But it is in the immediate future, mainly on solutions to manage soaring energy prices, that EU leaders are expected to focus on, as families on low incomes “should not have to choose between food and heating”, insisted the Spanish MEP, Iratxe Garcia Perez (S&D).
In front of MEPs, the Commission President detailed the action she will present to the heads of state or government.
Recalling that this increase is mainly due to gas markets (see EUROPE 12795/13), she stressed the importance of the transition to “clean energy”, not only “for our planet”, but also “for the resilience to energy price shocks”.
She then came back on the possible actions - in the short term at Member State level and in the medium and long term at EU level - presented on 13 October in the Commission’s “toolbox” (see EUROPE 12811/1), in particular those relating to gas storage.
“We could be better prepared, for example, by regularly stress-testing our storage and response capabilities. We will also look into the possibility of joint gas supplies, possibly on a voluntary basis”, the President assured.
Mrs von der Leyen also pointed out that the Commission will present a strategy for an international energy dialogue in early 2022, as well as guidelines to accelerate the granting of permits for renewable energy projects next year, under the Renewable Energy Directive.
The President of the Commission indicated, as well, that the question of storage will also be raised and recalled that her institution has asked the European Securities and Markets Authority to examine the negotiating behaviour of the Emissions Trading System (ETS) and for the EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) to carry out an evaluation of the functioning of the European electricity market.
On the issue of vaccination, Ms von der Leyen recalled that the EU had just taken an important step, having so far sent one billion doses to other regions of the world, but MEPs called for more commitment, as “global inequality in vaccination” was “immoral”, the S&D Chair said.
On the Rule of law, it was the Vice-President, Maroš Šefčovič, who reiterated at the end of the debate that the President would present a very clear and firm position on the Polish case on Thursday and would take up the line defended on Wednesday in front of the Polish Prime Minister (see EUROPE 12815/3).
For Esther de Lange (EPP, Netherlands), Member States cannot escape this discussion and must give clear political guidance to address the problem.
“If these foundations of the Rule of law are allowed to be eroded country by country, our area of security and freedom will be at risk and the European Parliament will not allow this”. “It is high time the (European) Council rose to the occasion”, she added.
Migration, and in particular the situation at the border with Belarus, is also a concern for MEPs, some of whom denounced the inhumane treatment of migrants and called for an agreement on the Pact on Migration and Asylum. “We can find an agreement between responsibility and solidarity”, said the new head of Renew Europe, Stéphane Séjourné (France).
“Human rights are being violated at our borders, this is not acceptable!”, criticised Ska Keller (Greens/EFA), saying it would be better to “set up an asylum system rather than be afraid”.
Resolution on the Rule of law
On Thursday, MEPs will be asked to adopt a resolution on the latest developments in Poland where they will condemn, among other things, the “illegitimate Constitutional Tribunal ruling of 7 October”, which constitutes “an attack on the European community of values and laws as a whole”.
MEPs will again call for triggering the Rule of law conditionality mechanism, but in a way that does not penalise citizens.
The text stresses “that these requests are not meant to be punitive measures against the people of Poland, but means to restore the Rule of law in Poland”. It therefore “calls on the Commission to establish, ways to ensure that Polish citizens and residents in Poland are not deprived of the benefits of EU funds due to the actions of the current Government by using all tools at its disposal, and by establishing avenues for these amounts to final beneficiaries to be administered by the Commission directly”.
The EPP group is reportedly divided on the resolution, with the French Republican delegation having already announced that it will vote against it, notably because it is opposed to conditionality being activated.
Link to the resolution: https://bit.ly/3G2Vx8X (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic with Damien Genicot)