COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union concerning the position of the Council on the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the Rights and Values programme (2021 to 2027) and repealing Regulation (EU) No 390/2014
Date: 2021-04-23
Institutions: Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers, European Commission
Subjects: EU programme, European citizenship, area of freedom, security and justice, civil society, cross-border cooperation, equal treatment, fundamental rights, human rights, participatory democracy, rule of law

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 23.4.2021  COM(2021) 216 final 2018/0207 (COD)  COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT  pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union  concerning the position of the Council on the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the Rights and Values programme (2021 to 2027) and repealing Regulation (EU) No 390/2014  
 
2018/0207 (COD) 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union 

concerning the 

position of the Council on the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and 
of the Council establishing the Rights and Values programme (2021 to 2027) and 
repealing Regulation (EU) No 390/2014 

1. 

BACKGROUND 

Transmission of the proposal to the European Parliament and to the 
Council (document COM(2018)0383) 

30 May 2018 

The Committee of the Regions delivered its Opinion on the proposal  

10 October 2018 

The European Economic and Social Committee adopted its Opinion on the 
proposal 

18 October 2018 

The  Committee  of  Permanent  Representatives  adopted  a  partial  mandate 
for negotiations, which was subsequently extended 

19 December 2018 

20 February2019 

Trilogues 

The Committee of Permanent Representatives confirmed the common 
understanding  reached with the European Parliament at the fourth trilogue 

22 January, 5 
February, 20 
February and 6 
March 2019 

13 March 2019. 

The European Parliament confirmed the common understanding through 
the adoption of a legislative resolution (first reading). 

17 April 2019 

Council agreement on a general approach 

Trilogues 

LIBE committee sent a letter to the Chair of the Committee of Permanent 
Representatives  (Part  2)  confirming  the  European  Parliament's  agreement 
on the outcome of inter-institutional negotiations  

2 December 2020 

10 and 17 
December 2020 

4 February 2021 

The  Committee  of  Permanent  Representatives  reached  a  political 
agreement on the compromise text   

17 February 2021 

Adoption of the Council first reading position  

19 April 2021  

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2. 

OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSAL FROM THE COMMISSION 

The  Rights  and  Values  programme  is  one  of  the  funding  instruments  under  the  2021-2027 
multiannual  financial  framework.  The  Rights  and  Values  programme  contributes  to  protect 
and  promote  rights  and  values  as  enshrined  in  the  EU  Treaties  and  in  the  EU  Charter  of 
Fundamental  Rights  in  order  to  sustain  and  further  develop  open,  rights-based,  democratic, 
equal  and  inclusive  societies  based  on  the  rule  of  law.  The  programme  will  support  civil 
society  organisations  active  at  local,  regional,  national  and  transnational  level  in  promoting 
Union values and rights. It will raise awareness of equality and non-discrimination, the rights 
of the child, data protection, EU citizenship rights as well as of the common European history. 
It will contribute to advance gender and non-discrimination mainstreaming. It will contribute 
to  preventing  and  combating  gender-based  violence  against  women  as  well  as  all  forms  of 
violence against children and other groups at risk. It will support citizens’ participation in the 
EU  democratic  life.  The  Commission  proposed  an  overall  budget  of  EUR  641  705  000  in 
current prices. 

The  programme  will  support  civil  society  organisations,  European  networks,  public 
authorities  including  equality  and  human  rights  bodies,  local  authorities,  academia/research 
institutes, think tanks. It will fund activities such as: 

Increasing awareness of rights, values and principles underpinning the EU as well as 

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of EU culture, and history; 

Increasing knowledge of EU law and policies as well as of potential obstacles to the 

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exercise of rights; 

Increasing  capacity  to  act  in  order  to  better  implement  EU  law  instruments  and 

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policies in the Member States; 

Fostering  cross-border  cooperation,  exchange  and  debate, 

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knowledge, mutual understanding and enhancing mutual trust among all stakeholders. 

improving  mutual 

3. 

COMMENTS ON THE POSITION OF THE COUNCIL 

The  Council's  position  reflects  the  agreement  reached  in  the  trilogues.  The  most  important 
changes as compared to the Commission’s proposal include:  

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Title : the title was changed to : “Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values" Programme, 

Specific  objectives:  further  specification  in  each  of  the  three  strands  proposed 
(equality and rights, citizens engagement and participation, Daphne) and notably the 
identification of examples of some groups at risk of violence; 

New strand: addition of a new fourth strand (Union values) particularly intended to 
support civil society organisations active in promoting Union values, democracy and 
the  rule  of  law.  These  elements  are  fundamental  in  building  citizens'  trust  in  the 
Union  and  in  ensuring  mutual  trust  among  Member  States.  In  this  way,  the 
programme will contribute to the construction of a more democratic Union, respect 
for the rule of law and democratic dialogue, transparency and good governance; 

Additional  funding:  allocation  of  a  top-up  of  EUR  800  000  000  in  2018  prices, 
resulting  from  the  Programme-specific  adjustment  provided  for  in  Article  5  and 
Annex II of the Council Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2020/2093 (i.e. MFF regulation); 

Earmarking  of  funds:  introduction  of  earmarking  of  the  funds  by  strand  as  well  as 
within the strands and introduction of a flexibility margin; allocation of a substantial 
part of the budget (the financial envelope and its top-up) to the Union values strand; 

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the extra funding provided through the additional  allocation ensures  that  the Union 
values strand is adequately financed and the proper implementation of the other three 
strands is not undermined; 

Joint  declaration:  a  joint  declaration  by  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council 
calls  upon  the  Commission  to  take  all  appropriate  actions  to  provide  the  Union 
values strand with substantial funding already in 2021; 

Eligible  entities:  entities  from  third  countries  are  excluded  from  the  new  strand 
(Union values) on the grounds that the focus of activities in this strand should be on 
the Member States; 

Programme contact points: introduction of a dedicated article; 

Civil dialogue: addition of a Civil Dialogue group (an informal forum for discussion 
with stakeholders) with a dedicated article and recital; 

Gender  equality  perspective:  reinforced  recital,  sex-disaggregated  data  in  the 
indicators and gender equality perspective in the mid-term and final evaluations; 

Activities to be funded: further specifications; 

Comitology:  examination procedure instead of advisory procedure;  the examination 
procedure, even if not  envisaged in  the original Commission proposal,  was the one 
used  in  Regulation  (EU)  No  1381/2013  establishing  the  Rights,  Equality  and 
Citizenship Programme 2014-2020 

The  agreement  reached  as  regards  earmarking  of  funds  increases  the  complexity  of  the 
programme  implementation,  but  it  maintains  the  degree  of  flexibility  that  the  Commission 
wanted to preserve for the programme.  

The  Commission  therefore  considers  that  the  agreement  reached  preserves  the  objectives  of 
its original proposal.  

4. 

CONCLUSION 

The Commission accepts the position taken by the Council. 

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