European Parliament Rejects Recovery Plan Over Climate-Funding Cuts

The European Parliament rejected on Thursday (23 July) the hard-won decisions of the EU Council.

MEPs criticized, among other things, cuts to climate programs and voiced fear that billions of euros could fall into the wrong hands.

The Parliament rejected the Council’s decision on the multiannual budget (MFF) and recovery plan by a clear majority. MEPs called the compromise too unambitious and criticized the cuts in climate-related funding.

Some Green MEPs expressed their disappointment in advance of the debate.

The national leaders’ agreement was a “turning away from the Green Deal,” wrote German Michael Bloss.

“The European Union must cut back its support program for CO2-free steel. The program for investments in the future has been cut by €30.3 billion to now €5.6 billion. The fund to support coal regions purrs together from €40 billion to €10 billion,” he complained.

In a resolution drafted by the group leaders on Wednesday (22 July), the Parliament said, among other things, “we believe that the proposed cuts in programs for the transition of coal-dependent regions run counter to the Green Deal agenda.”

This refers in particular to the Just Transition Fund (JTF), which the Commission had wanted to increase from €7.5 billion to €40 billion as part of the EU’s coronavirus aid, but which was cut back to €17.5 billion during the negotiations between member state leaders. […]

Stumbling block in the recovery fund

German MEP Delara Burkhardt (S&D) sees the proposal for the recovery fund as a stumbling block.

Although climate protection is anchored in the so-called “Recovery and Resilience Facility” (RRF), for which the Council allotted €672.5 billion, the proposal is not a complete success.

The annex to the draft lists seven priorities, which the member states can weight differently. These include investments that “effectively contribute to the green and digital transitions.”

Burkhardt fears that member states “choose the combination of criteria fulfillment in such a way that they would not have to meet any ecological conditions at all. This is especially possible if they instead fully focus on digital transformation.”

Court of Auditors warns against lax controls

Green MEP Rasmus Andresen called for Parliament and the European Court of Auditors to be given a right of veto over the approval of national investment plans.

In the past, the Court of Auditors had already denounced the inspection methods of the Commission on several occasions.

In a statement issued in early July, financial supervisors noted that the EU’s climate change spending to date had been overestimated, while negative effects of spending, for example in agriculture, had not been sufficiently taken into account.

On Wednesday, the Court of Auditors made further progress. Even in the previous proposal for the JTF, it said, “the link between performance and financing is relatively weak.”

This “poses a significant risk that the JTF will not help to end the strong dependence of some regions on carbon-intensive activities,” it said.

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