Sweden’s Minister for European Affairs, Jessica Rosencrantz, said on Tuesday 24 September that “the Swedish and Finnish initiative on strengthening the rule of law” would be discussed at the General Affairs Council.
In a letter on Monday 23 September, Sweden and Finland called on the European Commission to strengthen the link between respect for the rule of law and the conditionality of European funds by extending it to all EU funds in the next multiannual financial framework (MFF). The two countries are therefore calling for “cross-cutting conditionality” linked to the rule of law, in EU funding programmes and instruments as well as spending programmes.
It’s “an important initiative”, according to Jessica Rosencrantz, who is counting on the support of “many Member States”.
In their letter, the two Member States refer to Ursula von der Leyen’s speech in Strasbourg on 17 July (see EUROPE 13456/1), in which the President of the European Commission presented respect for the rule of law as an imperative for obtaining EU funds.
The two countries cite two reasons for this: the need to protect the EU’s common values, as set out in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union, and that “taxpayers need to trust that the EU’s common funds are used appropriately and responsibly”.
To read the letter, go to https://aeur.eu/f/dju (Original version in French by Florent Servia)