The Renew Europe group has proposed the creation of a “Rule of Law Restoration Fund” in an amendment to the European Parliament’s draft own-initiative report (see EUROPE 13570/13) on the post-2027 multiannual financial framework.
Fabienne Keller, Lucia Yar, Anouk Van Brug and Stine Bosse explained in their amendment that the purpose of this fund would be to “set aside any funds frozen and suspended from Member States because of their violation of the rule of law, and which would then be redistributed once the Commission has obtained guarantees and carried out a full assessment of respect for the rule of law in the Member State concerned”. According to MEPs, this fund would encourage Member States to invest more rapidly in corrective measures.
With this measure, Renew Europe MEPs want to put pressure on the European Commission to suspend the funds properly. MEPs were not convinced that some of the funds that were unfrozen for Hungary should have been, given the lack of progress on the rule of law in the country, a source close to the dossier told us.
In addition, MEPs from Parliament’s Committees on Budgets and Budgetary Control will be discussing the state of implementation of the cross-compliance regulation with European Commissioner Piotr Serafin on Wednesday 19 March. (Original version in French by Florent Servia)