National parliaments need to ratify financing of Recovery Fund

For the EU's Coronavirus Recovery Fund to work, national parliaments have to approve the new financing mechanism for the Fund as soon as possible. This is why national Members of Parliament from the EPP family and EPP Group MEPs met today online to discuss the state of play of the national ratification processes of the so-called Own Resources Decision and the preparations of national recovery and resilience plans.

Vangelis Meimarakis MEP, Vice-Chairman of the EPP Group responsible for relations with national parliaments, highlighted: “The big question in front of us is when the recovery funds will be disbursed. The pandemic is leaving a significant social, political and economic impact. The Recovery Package is one of the bravest initiatives taken by the European Union in order to keep national economies afloat and with the intention of laying a solid foundation so that European societies can return to growth. Now, the challenge Europe has ahead is to ensure that the transition to the digital age and green growth leaves no-one behind.”

Siegfried Mureşan MEP, who negotiated the Recovery Fund for the European Parliament, stressed: "National parliaments now have a crucial role in making the Fund work. The borrowing operations of the Recovery Plan cannot start until the new Own Resources Decision enters into force. The ratification of this decision by every single EU Member State will ensure that citizens, enterprises and regions affected by the consequences of the COVID-19 crisis will be helped. So it is now in the interest of every EU Member State to ratify the new Own Resources Decision as soon as possible."

Mureşan also recalled: "This is the most important revision of the system of own resources in over 25 years since we introduced a new own resource, namely the plastic tax. This revision is also very important as we are aligning the system of own resources to the EU’s strategic objectives and supporting the European Green Deal."