Pascal Arimont (EPP, Belgian) briefed the European Parliament’s Committee on Regional Development (REGI), on Wednesday 30 November, on the progress of the interinstitutional negotiations on REPowerEU, in particular on aspects relating to cohesion funds (see EUROPE 13071/11).
On the ‘do no significant harm’ principle (see EUROPE 13049/11, 13051/20), “positions are moving closer between the EU Council and us”, said Mr Arimont, advocating for a solution that does not stray too far from the principle “while allowing critical infrastructure to be built to overcome the energy crisis”.
The REGI negotiator also believes that an agreement could be reached “quickly” on the use of the remaining 2014-2020 cohesion funds to assist households in fuel poverty and SMEs (see EUROPE 13045/4). Negotiators from the European Parliament and the EU Council are still discussing the possibilities of raising the transfer limit from 10% of their total national allocation to 12.5% as well as the possibility of co-financing or postponing spending until 2026. The European Parliament is not, in Mr Arimont’s view, inclined to derail the negotiations on these last points.
It should be noted that the EU Council estimates that only “four or five Member States” would be affected by this measure and that the estimated budget of €40 million would therefore be lower (see EUROPE 13070/9).
Furthermore, the European Parliament strongly opposed the transfer of an additional 7.5% of cohesion policy to the ‘Recovery and Resilience Facility’ (RRF). The EU Council did not take a position. Similarly, MEPs opposed the transfer of the ‘Just Transition Fund’ and the EU Council’s Brexit Adjustment Reserve, but said they were open to concessions on the reserve.
According to Mr Arimont, a fourth and a fifth round of negotiations between the European Parliament and the EU Council on REPowerEU is expected to be held before 15 December. (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)