Debate: Conclusions of the European Council meeting of  June  - Preparation of the European Council meeting of - July
Date: WEDNESDAY, 8 JULY 2020
Speaker: Maroš Šefčovič
Language: EN

The first is the sense of urgency mentioned by Mr Mureşan, by Mr Lamberts and by Mr Andresen, who made reference to ‘ A second very important group of remarks referred to the social aspects, to the thrust of the policies to make sure that we would underpin the green and digital transformations together with resilience. There have been some question marks on how all this would be organised, so I just want to reassure all honourable Members that the recovery plans would be drafted by the Member States themselves. Of course we want to make sure that the issues, the accumulated problems which have been building up in all Member States year by year would be tackled. Gradually we would be removing them and by that we would really be achieving the resilience which should be stronger in our Member States and for the whole European Union.  The Commission will, of course, be in a close iteration process with our Member States and we are ready to inform the European Parliament, as we always do, under the consultations, under the structured dialogue, under the hearings, when it comes to the European Semester process. The European Parliament will have strong oversight over all expenditure as it does right now when we are reviewing expenditure on an annual basis. This was also, I would say, the thrust of the remarks by Ms Aubry, Mr Pieper, and also by Ms Hohlmeier, to make sure that this process is transparent and that the role of the European Parliament is properly maintained. As Ms Marques suggested, I think right now we have the first meeting of our leaders and Presidents under Article 324 and, as I said in my introductory remarks, we are ready to make a proposal for institutional declarations which would really put in a very clear framework how we see our close cooperation among the institutions on the important parts of implementation of Next Generation EU and the MFF in the future.  The last point, which was raised by Ms Virkkunen, who was our last speaker, but also by Mr Benifei, Ms Hayer and Mr Cormand, was on own resources. Indeed this is a very important question, because we have to propose new ways of how we are going to pay, with money which would be raised on financial markets, to finance our resilience and recovery instrument.  We are considering, as was highlighted, the emission trading system; also the carbon adjustment mechanism, but also an own resource based on operations of enterprises in the European Single Market and the Digital Tax. We continue to work on our plastics tax and on some other ideas which are coming along in this process of deliberations and discussions.  What we want to propose to you is that we are ready to work on the roadmap, on how we want to assess, when we want to propose, and how we want to debate these potential new resources because we know that it’s important for this Parliament. It’s also very important for the national parliaments, because as you know, if we want to increase the ceilings of our resources and financing, we need to get the support of all EU Member States’ national parliaments. So to conclude, I really would like to thank you for your support, for the sense of urgency, for your readiness to cooperate in the very dynamic way which would be needed for the next Semester. I’m very much looking forward to our debate. Once again, be assured that the role of the European Parliament will be properly maintained.