MEPs debate during the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, on guidelines currently being developed by the European Commission on how to apply the EU Rule of Law Conditionality Mechanism, designed to protect EU funds from being misused by EU governments. Statements by Eider GARDIAZABAL RUBIAL (S&D, ES) and by Petri SARVAMAA (EPP, FI), Rapporteurs.

statement

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

REINTKE, Terry (Greens/EFA, DE)

EU mechanism on democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights (T)

HAHN, Johannes (AT, EC)

SARVAMAA, Petri (EPP, FI)

GARDIAZABAL RUBIAL, Eider (S&D, ES)

Multiannual financial framework 2021-2027 (T)

RZOŃCA, Bogdan (ECR, PL)

KÖRNER, Moritz (Renew, DE)

Rule of law conditionality: extracts from the debate and statements by Eider GARDIAZABAL RUBIAL (S&D, ES) and Petri SARVAMAA (EPP, FI), Rapporteurs

Title: Rule of law conditionality: extracts from the debate and statements by Eider GARDIAZABAL RUBIAL (S&amp;D, ES) and Petri SARVAMAA (EPP, FI)

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Eider GARDIAZABAL RUBIAL (S&amp;D, ES), Rapporteur, This is in particular a great opportunity for you to tell us exactly what the commission is doing and to reply to that first question, when exactly is action going to be taken?

SOUNDBITE (English), Petri SARVAMAA (EPP, FI), Rapporteur, If the commission wishes it can use these guidelines as such and start implementing the regulation right away. Now, the final obstacle, and this is the political one of course, we all know Voldemort can be considered to be out of the way. It's cleared. We have the guidelines. There can be no more delay, no more excuses.

SOUNDBITE (English), Terry REINTKE (Greens/EFA, DE), So, Commissioner, take this as a strong appeal and I can only support my colleagues saying come back from the summer break with a strong case on the basis of this regulation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Johannes HAHN, Commissioner, No case will be lost. The Commission has been actively working to assess information from all sources in view of building up a robust case and the robust cases and initiating the procedure under the Article six of the regulation. Notification letters will be sent without any delay as soon as we have gathered concrete evidence that the conditions required by the regulation are fulfilled.

SOUNDBITE (German), Moritz K&#214;RNER (Renew, DE), The commission, Madam von der Leyen, have to finally make their position quite clear. Will this horrible, dirty deal with Poland and Hungary continue? Will this continue into the future? This is a terrible stain and tarnishes our institutions.

SOUNDBITE (Polish), Bogdan RZO&#323;CA (ECR, PL), And Mrs Merkel said that Poland has every right to defend its good reputation. So you can ask, why did she say that? I think you have false information about Poland.

SOUNDBITE (English), Eider GARDIAZABAL RUBIAL (S&amp;D, ES), Rapporteur, Well, what we want is to to give some input to these guidelines that the commission wants to approve after the summer break, but in the end, the main message is that if you want clarification, you only need to read the regulation because it's enough clear.

SOUNDBITE (English), Eider GARDIAZABAL RUBIAL (S&amp;D, ES), Rapporteur, From the parliament, we have been waiting a long time that this regulation is in place and it entered into force 1st January 2021. So now it's up to the commission to apply it and we urge the commission to apply it. What happened until now is that we don't have proof that the commission is applying the regulation. So we asked them to give us information and proof that they are using the the regulation. If not, in two months, we will go and bring this case in front of the Court of Justice.

SOUNDBITE (English), Petri SARVAMAA (EPP, FI), Rapporteur, There's the Article 265 that gives us, or any institution actually the right to to take another institution to court for failing to act on regulation or directive. So this is what it's about. The article 265 states very clearly that when we make the call on the commission on this to act, and that happened on June 24th or 23rd. But we start to count from June 24th. They have two months to reply.

SOUNDBITE (English), Petri SARVAMAA (EPP, FI), Rapporteur, By August 24th, the commission has to reply, and then the Parliament will review the reply and judge whether it's satisfactory or whether we would still go ahead with the legal challenge.

SOUNDBITE (English), Petri SARVAMAA (EPP, FI), Rapporteur, It's impossible to think that you can only join the club to get the money, like in this case, but you don't have to follow the rules. I mean, this is very clear to me, and I think that is actually clear to Mr. Orb&aacute;n as well.