Debate: Respecting the partnership principle in the preparation and implementation of national recovery and resilience plans, and ensuring good governance of the spending
Date: THURSDAY, 11 MARCH 2021
Speaker: Valdis Dombrovskis
Language: EN

The Commission is currently engaging very intensively with Member States to help them improve and finalise as quickly as possible their recovery and resilience plans. In this context, I would like to thank you for highlighting the important issues of the partnership principle and governance. The implementation of plans will only be successful with strong Member State ownership, as well as support from social partners and civil society at every stage of the process. The Commission, therefore, attached great importance to stakeholder involvement, as we already made clear in the annual sustainable growth strategy back in September.  Thanks to the efforts of co-legislators, the RRF Regulation contains strong provisions in this regard. Member States’ plans will need to include summaries of consultations with relevant stakeholders, for example with local and regional authorities, social partners, civil society organisations and youth organisations. And it’s not just a matter of carrying out the consultations; Member States will also need to explain how their plans reflect stakeholders’ contributions. Given the scope and also the facility, this is only logical. For instance, Member States will need to explain how their plans contribute to enhancing cohesion, taking into account local, regional and national disparities. Strong ownership will be crucial for the facility to be a success. A strong governance structure will be important as well. It is Member States which are responsible for preparing and implementing their recovery and resilience plans, and payments will be made to them. However, it will be vital to involve local and regional authorities, social partners and civil society in putting plans into practice in the years ahead. This will play a key role in helping to translate ambitious objectives into concrete policy initiatives that will benefit people and businesses on the ground. Honourable Members, the European Parliament will also have an important role to play in the governance of the facility. The Commission is looking forward to starting the recovery and resilience dialogues. We stand by our commitment to take into account the views expressed through these dialogues. We have also started work on delegated acts for the scoreboard, the common indicators and the methodology report on social expenditure under that facility.  I would also like to say a few words on the sound management of the funds committed under the facility. As this House knows well, the RRF is a performance-based instrument. This means that Member States will receive funds once they reach agreed milestones and targets as put forward in their plans and the Council implementing decisions. The performance-based nature of the facility is a primary and robust guarantee of sound financial management. In addition, the Commission will assess Member States’ monitoring and control systems, which they will need to explain in their plans, and Member States will need to provide with each payment request a management declaration and a summary of audits carried out at national level, attesting to the fact that all checks and precautions have taken place. These steps will be carried out openly and transparently, providing an opportunity to flag possible cases of serious irregularities, firstly before the RRF coordinators in each Member State, who will be obliged to examine if any irregularities took place, and secondly before the Commission, OLAF or the European Public Prosecutor, which have the powers to investigate and assess all relevant national records and data. As a last resort, the Commission will be able to reduce and recover any amounts affected by serious irregularities that have not been corrected by the Member State concerned. In summary, we are confident that all these mechanisms, when applied together, will ensure the sound and correct use of funds committed under the RRF. Honourable Members, let me conclude here and thank you for your attention. I look forward to your discussion today.