Dear friends, dear interested,
Together with Green MEPs from the Economic (ECON) and Budget Committee (BUDG) in the European Parliament, we have drafted a new proposal for a democratically controlled and solidarity-based recovery fund within the EU budget. We want to use the headroom in the EU budget for to raise funds and thus provide a European fiscal response to the Corona crisis. Europe needs a solidarity-based way out of the Corona crisis in order to prevent the break-up of the eurozone. It is crucial that the money flows mainly in the form of grants and not as loans to the countries particularly hard hit by the crisis. To have the necessary impact, the recovery fund should comprise at least 1 to 1.5 trillion euro. The fight against the crisis must no longer be left to monetary policy and the Member States alone. National support programmes are highly unequal and are putting the internal market in a dangerous imbalance. Without more European solidarity and common fiscal policy, Europe is in danger. The single currency and the single European market will only survive a prolonged crisis if all parts of Europe get off lightly in economic terms. If Italy and other countries experience dramatic levels of unemployment, mass company insolvencies and new poverty as a result of the Corona crisis, this will damage European integration as a whole.
In its Corona Resolution in April, the European Parliament spoke out in favour of fighting the crisis in the framework of the EU budget. However, the resolution left open the question of whether Member States would receive support through loans or grants. We Greens had argued for a clear commitment to greater solidarity through joint borrowing.
With its new resolution on the multiannual financial framework and the recovery fund, the European Parliament goes further. The resolution is due to be debated in plenary today, 13 May, and voted on in several blocks on 14 May and 15 May. A broad, cross-party majority of pro-Europeans is expected. We Greens have played a driving role in the negotiations and fully support the resulting compromise between the pan-European groups. The draft resolution calls for a recovery plan that will support Member States mainly through EU grants and be financed by long-term bonds and new EU own resources. The Commission is explicitly warned against financial alchemy with alleged large multiplier effects on EU guarantees for investment loans, as it was done to create an illusionary giant with the Juncker Fund. This is intended to prevent the debt of severely affected Member States from increasing further in the crisis. The joint recovery programme should promote the Green Deal and digitisation as a priority and be linked to environmental, social and economic conditions. This strong resolution text is a clear signal of the solidarity and ecological reconstruction plan that Europe so urgently needs. The European Parliament shows its strength here: strong positions in the interests of the European common good.
Member States and the Commission are currently negotiating behind the scenes on the legislative proposal for the revised multiannual budget for 2021 – 2027 and the recovery fund. A Commission proposal is expected around 20 May. The Commission and the Member States should take the European Parliament’s demands on the recovery fund as an example. Europe now needs an ambitious and environmentally sustainable proposal for the way out of the crisis. A European response based on the motto „too little too late“ as in the last crisis would be a serious threat to the future of Europe. Germany and the Netherlands in particular must swallow their pride and clear the way for a European solidarity-based response to the Corona crisis.
With green European greetings
Sven Giegold
Link to the green proposal for a recovery fund within the EU budget: https://sven-giegold.de/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Recovery-fund-with-the-MFF-GREENSEFA-proposal.pdf
Draft resolution of the European Parliament on the multiannual financial framework and the recovery fund: https://sven-giegold.de/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Resolution-on-the-New-MFF-Own-Resources-and-the-Recovery-1.docx