Debate: Technical Support Instrument
Date: MONDAY, 18 JANUARY 2021
Speaker: Alexandra Geese
Country: Germany
Language: EN

Thanks to a strong position of the European Parliament – and here I would like to thank my co-rapporteurs, Othmar Karas and Dragoș Pîslaru, for their excellent cooperation on this file – today we have a Technical Support Instrument that is substantially greener, more gender-equal and ensures stronger transparency. That is to say, it is more in line with today’s European priorities. First of all the European Green Deal, because knowledge about climate mainstreaming and climate tracking methodologies, for example, will help Member States to make their economies and their societies future—proof.  Strong transparency mechanisms will help to showcase the positive contribution of the European Union and foster pro—European attitudes, and more power to local and regional levels will enhance change from the bottom with the more direct involvement of citizens. So, we have many reasons to be proud of this new instrument.  But let me first explain what the Technical Support Instrument actually is. It supports Member States in their efforts to implement reforms and investments, giving them the institutional and administrative capacity they need. That means that Member States can simply ask the European Commission for help and the European Commission will either provide the expertise directly, or task experts to do so, working very closely with Member States. The TSI replaces the Structural Reform Support Programme, which has successfully supported over 1 000 reform projects in the 27 Member States since 2017. It has a budget of EUR 864 million for the period 2021—2027, and although it is a standalone instrument it will also assist the national authorities in implementing the recovery and resilience plans successfully.  As I mentioned at the beginning, the TSI is more than the continuation of a successful programme. It specifically addresses crucial challenges of our time – climate change and the European Green Deal – listing among the eligible actions, which are a sort of menu for the Member States to pick and choose from, methodologies for climate tracking. This is a crucial instrument, which we need in order to fulfil not only our climate goals, but also to raise awareness on local, regional and national levels to the many ways in which reducing CO2 emissions can also improve the life of citizens. For example by reducing air pollution in cities, which is something our citizens care about.  Then there is the resilience of our health care systems. We are still in the midst of the COVID—19 pandemic, which has demonstrated all too clearly how essential well—organised public health systems are. There is also the digitalisation of public services, upskilling policies in the labour market – we know how much change we will experience in the labour market in the next years – and the fight against poverty and income equality.  Then there is the last point, which is particularly close to my heart: gender equality. Because when we speak about competitivity and growth, we often forget one of the key factors to achieve sustainable growth, competitivity and more social justice at the same time, and that is gender equality. There is ample evidence that gender equality in the labour market is closely linked to economic growth. There is also ample evidence that women are currently paying the highest economic price for the COVID—19 crisis. So, in order to overcome this crisis successfully, we need to support gender equality. The right way to do this is to invest public funds equally between men and women. This is not easy, because it requires a good methodology and often even external expertise, and that is one reason why many administrations still shy away from it. Unfortunately, this has also been true for our European Commission, which shied away from gender impact assessments in the Recovery and Resilience Fund for that reason.  This is the reason why Parliament insisted on including expertise on gender budgeting and gender impact assessment among the eligible actions.  All administrations therefore have access to the best methods to determine what impact their measures and budgets have on women and men and how to promote a more gender—equal – and therefore more inclusive and more successful – society.  I am convinced that the Technical Support Instrument will make an important contribution to the socially inclusive, green and digital transition we urgently need in Europe.