Debate: The right of information of the Parliament regarding the ongoing assessment of the national recovery and resilience plans
Date: TUESDAY, 18 MAY 2021
Speaker: Valdis Dombrovskis
Language: EN

The Commission fully understands and supports the need for transparency and scrutiny of the recovery and resilience plans. The Commission is committed to ensuring maximum transparency with the Parliament during this process, as foreseen in the regulation. For instance, the Recovery and Resilience Dialogue, which took place last week for the first time, will be an important central forum for the Commission to exchange with the Parliament. In addition, the Parliament has initiated a working group on the scrutiny of the RRF, which has met three times until now. The Commission is committed to contributing actively to the working group by providing necessary information to the Parliament. For instance, the Commission has participated in two meetings so far, one on the overall assessment framework and one on the digital dimension, and other meetings are scheduled in the coming weeks. As foreseen in the regulation, the Commission shares the national recovery and resilience plans simultaneously with the Parliament and the Council, in the languages we receive them in, without delay. When translations from Member States are available, the Commission commits to transmit those as well, provided the relevant Member State agrees. The Commission also commits to provide a summary of the reforms and investments of the submitted plans if and when the Commission adopts the proposal for a Council implementing decision. This will provide you with more structured information. The Commission fully understands the need of the Parliament to ensure proper democratic oversight and parliamentary scrutiny during the implementation of the facility. This was an important element of the negotiations between co—legislators a few months ago, where the Commission supported the achievement of a fair balance. The Commission is willing to orally share its findings from the overall reading of the plans, for instance with respect to green and digital targets, as well as the social components of the plans submitted. Other aspects based on the overall reading can also be discussed within the context of that dialogue. At the same time, the RRF regulation, as agreed between Parliament and Council, does not foresee the preparation of a preliminary assessment of individual plans.  For the RRF implementation to be successful, broad ownership and support is crucial. The regulation requires Member States to provide a summary of the national consultation process and the Commission is strongly encouraging their involvement in interactions with all Member States. The active involvement of stakeholders will be vital throughout all stages of the implementation process. The submission of the national recovery plans is only the first step. I welcome the letter that some of you have addressed to Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni and myself, supporting us on this front.  Regarding the delegated acts on the recovery and resilience scoreboard and on the methodology for reporting social expenditure, the Commission will assure the Parliament’s involvement, in accordance with the interinstitutional agreement of 2016 between our institutions. The Commission is currently drawing up these acts and will, in the coming weeks, discuss them at a technical level with the Member States’ experts in the presence of observers from both the Council and the Parliament in line with the agreed process. The Commission will also discuss the delegated acts with the European Parliament’s RRF working group.  The Commission is committed to the swift adoption of the delegated acts, well before the deadline of December 2021 foreseen by the regulation. We aim to be faster than this and allow for an earlier adoption even if it will be more likely to be after the summer recess than before it. To conclude, the Commission is fully committed to continue close cooperation with the European Parliament in the coming weeks and months.