Debate: The revision of the Financial Regulation in view of the entry into force of the - multiannual financial framework
Date: MONDAY, 22 NOVEMBER 2021
Speaker: Nils Ušakovs
Country: Belgium
Language: EN

We have the new MFF package that includes now NGEU and it’s a new reality for everyone. We need a regulation that’s in line with these changes to the whole EU budget. But revision of the Financial Regulation is not about technicalities only. Well-designed, ambitious revision shall make our Union stronger and better capable of protecting both its values and its money. It’s our opportunity to ensure everyone respects the rules of the game and introduce clear costs for anyone who fails to follow this regulation, from beneficiaries to top national government representatives.  Talking about costs, we can assume there is a relationship between respect for the rule of law and the efficient implementation of the European budget. The Commission must consider the Rule of Law Conditionality Regulation adopted at the end of 2020 as part of the MFF 2021-2027 agreement, and provide a proposal with a view to fully aligning the Financial Regulation provisions to the conditionality regulation.  I should outline that we don’t want to launch a new debate on the rule of law principles. It is clear the agreement we have right now was not that easy to achieve. But if it’s prohibited to cross the road at a red light, no one should be ashamed of repeating this ban in any piece of traffic rules. We want results of previous debates to be implemented in real life. We want alignment of principles that were previously agreed on in every piece of European regulation. That is it. Nothing else.  Rule of law, social issues, protection of environment, gender equality, these are questions of utmost importance not for this House only, but for every European. The EU budget is obviously our main tool. That’s why we need to use EU funds to promote climate and biodiversity mainstreaming, social conditionality or gender budgeting, and track the impact of EU policies on them.  In order to be successful we must align EU spending with our objectives and values, and the Financial Regulation is exactly the right place to do that. Up to now we’ve use the committed appropriations only for Horizon Europe. Extending the possibility to reuse the commitments in areas other than research and innovation is important. We cannot allow this targeted revision of the Financial Regulation to become a missed opportunity, ending up getting a set of awkward and sophisticated requirements.  It takes political will to achieve success, so it cannot be easy. But lacking political will could result in creating bad opportunities to abuse the European budget across the continent and for the devaluation of core European principles. And this would undermine all the efforts done before – I’m referring to NGEU and the introduction of European bonds.  It is said that the Commission will not publish its proposal this year, but only in the first trimester of 2022. Such a delay is worrying. This delay also implies we might not have enough time to complete revision before May 2024, and that would be a major failure for all European institutions.  Apart from timing, even more worrying is the possible content of the proposal, with messages that issues like externally assigned revenues, borrowing and lending, rule of law conditionality, gender, climate and social mainstreaming may not be included in the proposal.  Here I would like to bring an illustrative example from my home country, the country I obviously know the best. One of the ministers recently publicly assumed that municipalities would face problems to get access to NGEU money if they’re run by the wrong political party. By the way, that was the minister of welfare. Isn’t it a shame? This is a particular example why we have to do more to protect European Union values through a sound Financial Regulation and even assumptions like this should be a no-go for any Member State. Commissioner Hahn, you are well known as a highly experienced pro-European politician. You can rely on the full support of this House if the ambitions of the proposal of the Commission will meet the needs of all Europeans. Our goal is to create a regulation that guarantee transparency and budgetary overview and which would serve any other instrument being possibly introduced to fight new potential crises our Union can face. Thank you and good luck to all of us in getting the regulation done.