Debate: Conclusions of the extraordinary European Council meeting of  April  - New MFF, own resources and Recovery plan
Date: WEDNESDAY, 13 MAY 2020
Speaker: Ursula von der Leyen
Language: FR

Et aujourd’hui, dans cette période d’adversité et en réponse à cette crise, l’Europe a plus que jamais besoin d’unité, de détermination et d’ambition. Et c’est dans cet esprit que la Commission travaille sur un plan de relance ambitieux pour l’Europe, comme vous le demandez dans votre résolution aujourd’hui.  Mesdames et Messieurs les députés, nous savons tous pour quoi il est nécessaire d’agir et, au cours de ces dernières semaines, vous m’avez souvent entendue parler de ce que l’Europe doit faire. Aujourd’hui, je veux vous parler du comment. Je veux vous présenter l’architecture et les principales caractéristiques du plan de relance ambitieux pour l’Europe sur lequel nous travaillons. Mais, pour faire cela, nous devons d’abord bien comprendre l’anatomie de cette crise très particulière. Allow me three remarks ahead of the analysis. We have had economic slowdowns before, but we’ve never had an economic shutdown like the last three months. Our economies have been on hold. Supply chains have been disrupted severely. Demand has collapsed. The truth is that we will not just go back to ‘business as usual’ soon. Our economies and societies will open slowly, cautiously, gradually. While schools stay shut we all know that most parents will have to continue with ‘home-office’, and while social distancing measures rightly stay in place, businesses will have to rethink their workplaces and the way they work. In other words, we will recover but it will take time.  My second remark. The virus is the same in every Member State, yes, but the capacity to respond and absorb the shock is very different. For instance, we all know countries and regions with economies that are built on client—facing services like, for example, tourism or culture, have suffered way more. We should not forget that those who were hit first by the virus were often hit the hardest, because it was the painful experience and the full transparency of Italy and Spain in dealing with a pandemic that helped others to brace themselves for the impact. My third point. Every Member State has supported workers and companies as best as possible. Also, thanks to the European level being fast and forceful, we triggered the general escape clause, we gave full flexibility on all the structural funds and full flexibility on state aid. But it is also true that each Member State has a different fiscal space, so the use of state aid is also very different from Member State to Member State. What we are starting to observe now is an unlevelling of the playing field in the Single Market. To all that, we need a European response, and because it is a real European recovery focusing on European priorities, it is essential that the European Parliament plays its full role. For me, it goes without saying that this Parliament must provide democratic accountability and have its say on the entire recovery package, just as it does on the European budget. That is what we’re going to discuss today.  So let me plunge into the recovery package, which consists of two parts. First of all there will be the European budget, the so—called MFF, that is very well known to you. Secondly, and on top of the budget, will be a recovery instrument funded through a larger headroom. This headroom fixes the maximum amount of money that the Commission can borrow on the capital markets with the guarantees of the Member States, so backed by the Member States. Just as important, the entirety of the money of the recovery instrument will be channelled through the European budget, that is, through European programmes. This is why – and I repeat it – the European Parliament will have the same say on how the recovery money is spent as it does on how the MFF is spent.  Now, where does the recovery money go to? It will be spent across three pillars. The first pillar will focus on supporting Member States to recover, to repair, and to come out stronger from this crisis. The bulk of the money will be spent within this first pillar on the new recovery and resilience instrument that is created to fund, in the Member States, key public investment and reforms, but they have to be aligned with our European policy. In other words, thus we are paving the way to a climate—neutral, digitalised and resilient Europe.  This will be done through the European Semester. It will be available to all Member States, whether they are in the euro area or not. And it will be focused on those parts of the Union that have been most affected and where resilience needs are the greatest. This is one part of the first pillar, and the bulk of the money goes there. Within this first pillar there is also a second part, and that is the proposal by the Commission to top up the cohesion funds. This will be above the usual cohesion envelope within the MFF. This top up will be allocated based on the severity of the economic and social impact of the crisis. The second pillar. The second pillar is about kick—starting the economy and helping private investment to get moving again. We already knew before the crisis that we also need major private investment in key sectors and key technologies – 5G, artificial intelligence, clean hydrogen, off-shore renewable energies, you name it. The only thing this crisis changed is that it has made this need greater than it was before. This is why we will strengthen InvestEU. We will also create for the first time a new Strategic Investment Facility. This facility will help invest in the key value chains that are crucial for our future resilience and strategic autonomy. We’ve seen during the crisis how dependent we were on global supply chains, for example in the pharmaceutical sector, so Europe must be able to produce critical medicine itself.  But for all this, we also need healthy companies in Europe to invest in. This is why we’ll also propose, in this second pillar, a new Solvency Instrument. This will help match the recapitalisation needs of healthy companies which have been put at risk as a result of the lockdown, wherever they are located in the European Union.  Now the third and last pillar. The third pillar is about learning the most immediate lessons of the crisis. Over the last month we’ve seen what is important, what has worked well and what needs to be improved. So we will strengthen programmes that have proven their value in the crisis, such as RescEU or such as Horizon Europe. We will also create a new dedicated health programme, and we will make sure that we can support our partners by strengthening our instruments for neighbourhood development and international cooperation and for pre-accession assistance. Honourable Members, in a nutshell, this is what the recovery instrument looks like. It will be focused on where there is the greatest needs and the greatest potential. The recovery instrument is short—term and concentrated on the first years of recovery. It will include grants. It will include the possibility to frontload part of the investment, still this year, using proven financing models based on national guarantees. We should not forget that we’re not starting from scratch. The recovery instrument will complement the three important safety nets that were mentioned and agreed by the leaders in April – the SURE programme, the finance availability from the European Investment Bank and the European Stability Mechanism. Together with our MFF, this will be the ambitious answer Europe needs: an answer that includes the new own resources that we need in our budget, just as the Commission proposed in 2018; an answer that reflects our common values with a mechanism to protect the rule of law; an answer that is built on necessity but is designed for the future. Das heißt: eine Antwort, die aus der Krise geboren ist, die aber in die Zukunft investieren und dienen muss. Das stärkt nicht nur die Solidarität zwischen den Ländern und den Menschen, sondern das stärkt auch die Solidarität zwischen den Generationen. Denn, meine Damen und Herren, früher oder später werden Wissenschaftler und Forscherinnen einen Impfstoff gegen das Coronavirus finden.  Aber gegen den Klimawandel gibt es keinen Impfstoff, und deswegen muss Europa jetzt in eine saubere Zukunft investieren. Unsere Investitionen in den Wiederaufbau haben ihren Preis, und dieser Preis ist eine steigende Schuldenlast. Wenn wir aber die Schulden erhöhen müssen, für die unsere Kinder in Zukunft aufkommen müssen, dann ist es das Mindeste, dass wir mit dem Geld in ihre Zukunft investieren, dass wir den Klimawandel angehen und dass wir die Klimabelastung senken und eben nicht noch etwas draufpacken.  Deshalb: Im Ausgang der Krise dürfen wir nicht in die alten Muster zurückfallen. Wir dürfen nicht den Wiederaufbau in eine Wirtschaft von gestern stecken, sondern wir sollten jetzt mutig die Chance nutzen, um eine moderne, eine saubere, eine gesunde Wirtschaft aufzubauen, die die Lebensgrundlage unserer nächsten Generation, unserer Kinder sichert.  Meine Damen und Herren, die europäische Ebene allein kann nicht alle Wunden heilen, die diese Krise hinterlässt. Aber wir nehmen unseren Teil der Verantwortung wahr, indem wir heute die Lasten zwischen den Mitgliedstaaten ausgleichen und gleichzeitig sicherstellen, dass diese gewaltige Anstrengung auch auf das Konto der jüngeren Generation einzahlt. Das ist unsere Aufgabe heute. Und ich bin fest davon überzeugt, dass ein einiges Europa der Aufgabe gewachsen ist. Lang lebe Europa! Long live Europe! Vive l’Europe!