On Thursday 28 October, the European Finance Ministers approved the recovery plans of Estonia, Finland and Romania (see EUROPE 12820/20).
“Implementation of the recovery plans on the ground has begun. This is one of the keys to a successful, sustained economic recovery”, said Slovenian Finance Minister Andrej Šircelj after the ministerial meeting, which was held by video conference.
“Twenty-two national plans have been approved by the EU Council, the same number as the number of plans that have received a positive prior assessment from the European Commission”, noted European Commission Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis.
Seventeen plans have received a total of €52.3 billion in pre-financing. In November, Spain will make a regular payment application, with France, Greece and other countries to follow in December. The Commission will assess this application against the milestones set out in their respective plans.
More information on the Estonian (draft EU Council Decision: https://bit.ly/314khO1 and Annex: https://bit.ly/3bcf6NT ), Finnish (draft EU Council Decision: https://bit.ly/3nBet6q and Annex: https://bit.ly/3EmfjuD ) and Romanian (draft EU Council Decision: https://bit.ly/3GvMQUL and Annex: https://bit.ly/2Zzwr0Z ) recovery plans.
Polish plan: judicial reform is a conditio sine qua non
The Commission services are still analysing the Bulgarian, Swedish, Hungarian and Polish recovery plans.
The latter two plans are still being hotly debated on issues related to the independence of the judiciary in the Polish plan’s case and the fight against corruption in the Hungarian plan’s case.
“There is a long-standing specific recommendation for Poland which is the independence of the judiciary. (...) We want to put in the recovery and resilience plan a clear commitment to dismantle the disciplinary chamber, to reform the disciplinary regime and to start a process to reinstall the judges”, said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen later in the day. According to her, it is not only “feasible”, but “the ‘reform’ part is a sine qua non” for the approval of the Polish plan.
On Wednesday, the EU Court of Justice imposed a daily fine of €1 million on Warsaw for failing to stop the activities of the disciplinary chamber of the Polish Supreme Court, contrary to a judgment in mid-July (see EUROPE 12821/1).
Mr Dombrovskis said a decision on the Polish and Hungarian plans would be taken “soon”, without being able to specify a date. “What we have always emphasized is that what really matters is the quality over the pace”, he added.
Only the Netherlands has not officially transmitted its recovery plan to the European level. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)