Socialists and Democrats in the committees on budget and economic affairs spearheaded an agreement, in a committee vote today, on the future of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).

The RRF is the fund that will help member states recover from the Covid-19 crisis, by means of shared EU debt provided in the form of grants and loans, according to each country’s needs, based on their own national Recovery and Resilience Plans.

Eider Gardiazabal MEP, S&D spokeswoman on budget and rapporteur on the file, said:

“The Recovery plan has to be greener, more social and more detailed than the one proposed by the Council and needs to respect the Rule of law. More ecological, because we establish a 40% target for investments for climate change. More social, because it will enable financing for the European Pillar of Social Rights and underlines the gender mainstreaming aspect.

“Furthermore it is more flexible with the European Semester and gets rid of article 9, that allowed sanctioning member states who would not comply with the Stability and Growth Pact.

“We are ready to negotiate with the Council all day long to get the Facility ready for the 1st of January, 2021.”

Costas Mavrides MEP, S&D negotiator on the file, said:

“The RRF is the biggest ever EU effort to face a crisis and is the main financial tool included in the EUR 750 billion recovery instrument Next Generation EU. Our Group fought so that member states could use immediately and efficiently the money to address the economic and social impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in line with our social and environmental agenda, whilst ensuring that our economies will become more resilient to address shocks in a fair, sustainable and inclusive way that promotes well-being for all.

“We are in the second wave of this pandemic with enormous social and economic consequences on member states. We have heard many times that unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures but this not only needs to be stated, but also to be substantially reflected in this Facility. We are now ready to proceed to the negotiations with the Council and the Commission in order to reach a speedy but substantially valid and ambitious agreement which respects our EU values and leaves no one behind.”