Debate: State of play of Council negotiations on the Regulation on the protection of the Union’s budget in case of generalised deficiencies as regards the rule of law in the Member States
Date: THURSDAY, 9 JULY 2020
Speaker: Johannes Hahn
Language: EN

This unprecedented challenge is the moment when Europe matters more than ever. The lives of millions of people, the future of hundreds of thousands of companies and the prospects of many regions depend on our recovery plan. This makes it even more important that every euro we invest via our common EU budget really adds value and becomes a true investment in our future. Europeans expect us to protect taxpayers’ money and interests. Rightly so. The rule of law regulation plays an important role here and I appreciate this debate right before the summit. So let me highlight three points. First, where there are cases of generalised rule of law deficiencies in a Member State, we need an effective instrument to protect taxpayers’ money. Our rule of law proposal creates a genuine budgetary protection mechanism. Second, it’s a targeted tool to protect the European Union budget. That means that it’s fully in line with the Treaties and it’s distinct from the mechanism under Article 7 of the Treaties.  Third, it’s an objective and transparent budgetary mechanism to protect sound financial management. Measures will be proportionate to the impact on the EU budget and the position of the Member State concerned will be duly considered. The burden of proof will be borne by the Commission and the Council. The measures will need to be based on concrete factual elements and on specific grounds. So I thank Parliament once again for its support for the Commission’s proposal through the legislative resolution of 4 April 2019. The points raised by Parliament were well noted, notably the need to ensure the protection of final recipients and beneficiaries. It’s important that they don’t pay the price for rule of law deficiencies. The Commission is committed to addressing these issues in the trilogues.  The scope of our proposal is clear. It establishes a genuine mechanism to protect the EU budget and ensure sound financial management. In November 2019, the Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT) and the Committee on Budgets (BUDG) already decided to enter into interinstitutional negotiations with the Council. I trust that trilogues can start swiftly under the German Presidency and I took note, with great pleasure, of the statement of the Council representative. I count on the continued support of Parliament to find an agreement that preserves the effectiveness and the ambition of this important proposal. Protecting our common budget is our common interest. The rule of law proposal is a key feature of the overall MFF negotiations and therefore time is of the essence. Only if you, honourable Members, and the European Council strive for an overall political MFF agreement in the summer will we have a chance of getting support to where it is needed. I know this is indeed very ambitious and would represent an unprecedented speed. Well, these are unprecedented times. I think that for citizens, companies and regions every day counts and we have to deliver. This is in all our interests.