On Thursday 9 December, Gert-Jan Koopman, Director General of the DG Budget, assured MEPS that, “the European Commission has not suspended the application of the regulation on conditionality of the rule of law”.
On Thursday, the European Parliament’s ‘Budget’ and ‘Budgetary Control’ Committees discussed with the Commission the regulation on a general cross-compliance regime for the protection of the EU budget, following the Opinion of the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice (see EUROPE 12845/1).
Gert-Jan Koopman tried to address MEPs’ concerns about the slow pace of implementation of the regulation.
He said that the deadline given to Poland and Hungary to respond to the administrative letters was “the fourth week of January” 2022. The letters were signed on 19 November and the Commission said it was ready to discuss the content of the letters with the European Parliament, but in camera (see EUROPE 12837/14).
Mr Koopman said that the Commission was conducting further investigations. “We are monitoring the situation in all Member States”, he said.
The Director General also guaranteed that the final version of the guidelines accompanying the regulation will be adopted once the Commission has the final judgement of the Court on the Polish and Hungarian appeal.
José Manuel Fernandes (EPP, Portugal) asked whether the European Commission was also assessing the 2014-2020 appropriations for the EU budget. “The structural problems between 2014 and 2020 that have not been addressed pose a risk to the entire budget”, replied Gert-Jan Koopman.
Petri Sarvamaa (EPP, Finland), rapporteur on this dossier, said the Commission did not have to wait for the EU Court of Justice’s opinion before acting.
“The Commission is applying the Regulation”, concluded Mr Koopman. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)