New EU revenue should contribute to repaying the debts of the EU’s ‘Next Generation EU’ economic recovery fund, according to opinions adopted by the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgets on Wednesday 20 April.
The members of this committee adopted opinions on three proposals: the revision of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS); - the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM); - the Social Climate Fund.
MEPs pointed out that “the principle of universality implies there can be no earmarking or assignment of any particular own resource to cover a specific type of expenditure”. Thus, the new own resources based on the ETS and CBAM should not only contribute to climate action, but also “improve the resilience of the Union budget as a tool for investments and guarantees” and help cover the costs of Next Generation EU.
The EU is legally obliged to repay all liabilities arising from borrowing under the EU Recovery Plan by 2058 at the latest.
The Committee on Budgets also stresses the importance of not creating new additional intergovernmental funds outside the EU budget.
In order to avoid excessive costs for the implementation of CBAM, MEPs propose the creation of a single authority for this mechanism. Regarding the ETS, MEPs oppose temporary opt-out clauses giving Member States the possibility of delaying the application of the Emissions Trading System, as this would undermine the integrity of the ETS and fragment the ETS-based own resource.
The new own resources based on the ETS and CBAM are expected to come into force in early 2023.
Proposals to revise these three proposals are expected to be voted on in May by the European Parliament Environment Committee and then in June in the European Parliament plenary session. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)