Debate: Establishing the Recovery and Resilience Facility
Date: TUESDAY, 9 FEBRUARY 2021
Speaker: Dragoș Pîslaru
Country: Spain
Language: EN

This was indeed the European Parliament’s ambition. Together with my colleagues, Siegfried Mureşan and Eider Gardiazabal Rubial, we understood that the recovery will not work if we are not comprehensive. We understood that resilience couldn’t be achieved without ambition. We spent hundreds of hours, days and nights, thinking, listening, writing, discussing, negotiating, in order to find the best solution to win this battle and leave from it stronger. The RRF, the Recovery and Resilience Facility, is a symbol. It’s a symbol for the story we are going to tell our children and grandchildren years from now. It’s a symbol of the vision that we have for Europe and it’s a symbol of how we can unite behind a good purpose. And this is why we have actually found a proper solution, and we will implement this successfully. We owe this to the next generation. We have a story that our children will be proud of. A story that for me started in May 2020, when I was attending a conference about the early impact of COVID-19 outbreak on children, when I heard children’s representatives telling us that they are scared, that they are uncertain about their future and about the way in which they can continue their education. And many young people that were present there, you know, basically uttered their emotions about the fact that they might get unemployed or they might have an uncertain future. And I made a promise that day that children and youth would be at the centre, at the core of our recovery. How can we talk otherwise about the Next Generation EU if we are not going to deliver to the children and youth of tomorrow? And shortly after, when the Commission announced the recovery package, the one that repairs and prepares Europe for the next generation, we knew together that we should actually avoid that our youth and children would become what is called a ‘lockdown’ generation. And the European Parliament delivered on this promise, with the cooperation of the Council and of the European Commission. We have right now a pillar dedicated to children and youth that is beyond the pillars, the other five pillars that have been actually mentioned already, especially the social pillar that is also contributing to the fact that no one will be left behind. And the story continues and brings us to the present. And this is actually really important to see how things developed, because in August 2020 I conducted consultations in 13 Member States and I was actually talking to stakeholders and citizens and social partners, and this was a big effort to hear the citizens, to listen to them. And that’s why we actually put this in the mandate of the European Parliament in the negotiation. As part of our ambition right now, you will find in the Regulation the fact that we need to consult stakeholders and citizens in the elaboration of the national plans. And this is important and this is the message that the Parliament is sending, and the hope that we eventually put forward should allow the citizens to express their view. Last but not least, this facility – the RRF – is about unity. And European unity comes when we let our values guide us. In the European Parliament team we had different political views, but we stood united and we have been united in a team, and then at the beginning of the negotiation with the Council and the Commission, I specifically said: this is not Parliament on one side, Council on the other side, Commission on another side. We are all together, Team Europe, and we’ve been doing the negotiation in the interest of citizens. And this is actually shown in the regulation. And I am so proud that we acted as Team Europe, and I’m sure that we will act as Team Europe for the implementation. And obviously for having the trust of the citizens, we need to have transparency and we need to have the scrutiny, and we need to have legitimacy and democracy and accountability linked to that. Because we are strong together, and if we are going to work together with the 27 Member States, then indeed we should remember that this is not a cash machine but an instrument that requires full transparency and access to information. 2020 will remain a sad memory about losses, about uncertainty, about fear and insecurity. But the Recovery and Resilience Facility: it’s a symbol, it’s an ambition, it’s something about listening to citizens, and it’s a story about promise and vision and about European unity. And this is right now becoming reality. This is what we want our generations to come to remember. This is our role: to ensure that it’s going to be well implemented. I would like to thank again Siegfried, Eider, all the shadow rapporteurs, the chairs that have been guiding us, all the other colleagues and teams and our assistants and policy advisors that work together. We have the chance to be remembered as the ones that set the example for the next generation. ( This is something that the pandemic has not only reminded us, but actually made us apply in practice. Our unity is provided by the strength of our society, and what society needs right now is the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF): an instrument that puts social cohesion at its core; an instrument that shows how youth and children are a priority for our policy; an instrument that will make the European Pillar of Social Rights become a reality. Because if we are to speak about resilience, this is the pillar on which our resilience relies. The Employment Committee saw that this facility is the solution for citizens, and I think that this paves the way for the ambitious action plan ahead of the Porto summit in May. We have a choice to make, so let’s make the right one. Let’s adopt for our citizens the Recovery and Resilience Facility.