Debate: REPowerEU chapters in recovery and resilience plans
Date: WEDNESDAY, 9 NOVEMBER 2022
Speaker: Siegfried Mureşan
Country: Germany
Language: EN

Immediately after the beginning of the crisis generated by COVID-19, with all of its economic and social implications, we launched the biggest package of economic support ever launched at European level, NextGenerationEU, with the Recovery and Resilience Facility as its main part. We have been able to support people, enterprises, regions affected by the virus and by the economic and social consequences of the virus. And we have also embarked together on a trip to make our economies, our public systems – education, healthcare – more resilient, to make them stronger so that we can better face the next crisis.  The next crisis has come and we are now seeing how important it is to be strong. We are seeing that any vulnerability is a weakness and costs and is a source of insecurity in terms of crisis. We have seen how our energy dependency on the Russian Federation can be a risk to our societies and to our economies. This is why the European Commission has put forward REPowerEU, which is a fund that foresees EUR 20 billion for investments into reducing our dependency on Russian fossil fuels, firstly. And, secondly, improving our energy efficiency – the more efficient we are, the less energy we need to reach our objectives and that also means that we are less dependent on foreign sources. To improve our infrastructure and to better connect our countries and our regions, because this will allow us to move the energy from where we have it to those countries and those regions who would really need it, from an LNG terminal to a country that needs gas from a different, more reliable source as it reduces its consumption of Russian gas. Infrastructure, energy efficiency, reducing the dependency on Russia, and also the transition to a green economy to renewables, these are our priorities.  What did we do as a Parliament in this document, which is the position of the Parliament that we will be adopting tomorrow? Firstly, we are proposing that Member States receive a pre-financing of 20% for their REPowerEU chapters exactly as they received pre-financing for the National Recovery and Resilience Plans. It is now that Member States need money, firstly.  Secondly, cross-border projects. We need to create an energy union. We need to be better connected. This is why the Parliament demands that 35% of the resources go into cross-border projects, into international projects, projects that would lead to benefits for more than one single country. Cross-border projects in countries which have such cross-border projects, of course, if a country does not have it, it shouldn’t be obliged to do it. But all countries that have them, that can do them, they should do them.  Thirdly, the Recovery and Resilience Facility. About EUR 200 billion of the loans are unused for the time being. We, as the Parliament, demand that 30 days after the entry into force of REPowerEU, Member States need to notify whether they intend to access their loans. If not, they should lose the priority in accessing their loans. In simple words, money available under the Recovery and Resilience Facility not used and not accessed should be made available for REPowerEU for countries which need to invest more. And we say no to transfers from agriculture and cohesion policy. There was an initial thinking at the level of the Commission to allow transfers from agricultural cohesion to REPowerEU. Yes, REPowerEU is important, but not at the expense of regions and not at the expense of farmers. This is why the colleagues in the REGI Committee and the AGRI Committee are proposing not to support these transfers and this is also the view of the majority of the Parliament. More transparency in accessing these funds properly involving local and regional authorities, as for smaller energy projects at local level – their involvement is beneficial.  This is the position of the Parliament. Thanks to the two co-rapporteurs, thanks to the shadow rapporteurs that have worked with us. We are looking forward to a clear vote tomorrow and then to the trilogues between the Council and Parliament with the support of the Commission in the upcoming weeks.