The Spinelli Group, the network of the federalist and pro-reform members of the European Parliament, and the Union of the European Federalist (UEF), reacting to the joint statement of 26th November 2020 by Prime Ministers of Poland and Hungary, Mateusz Morawiecki and Viktor Orbán, have decided to issue a joint statement on the new EU Rule of Law mechanism and the MFF/Next Generation EU package deal.

“We stand firmly behind the deal agreed by the co-legislators, the European Parliament and the Council, on 10 November 2020. Parliament and Council are the budgetary authorities of the EU, not the European Council” declared Brando Benifei, President of the Spinelli Group and Sandro Gozi, UEF President.

“We condemn the behaviour of the Polish and Hungarian governments which are threatening to veto the Multiannual Financial Framework and block the launch of the Recovery Plan for Europe in the midst of the worse health and economic crisis in the EU’s history. COVID-19 has caused more than 300 thousand deaths in the EU and a GDP contraction of approximately 8 percentage points with enormous job losses, business closures and a dramatic worsening of social conditions across the EU”, they continue.

“We recall that the Rule of Law is a non-negotiable, fundamental value of the EU. We reject the interpretation by the Prime Ministers of Poland and Hungary that the proposed mechanism on the Rule of Law would circumvent the Treaties. It not only an absurd contradiction in terms, but also a legally inconsistent argument.”

“We also wish to propose a two-track process to overcome the deadlock: first, to immediately approve the MFF, the Recovery and Resilience Facility and the Rule of Law Mechanism, and second, to immediately start the Conference on the Future of Europe. This would allow us to prepare proposals on how to end unanimity rules on the EU’s budget decisions.”

“Lastly, we also call to take the appropriate procedures to negotiate the necessary modifications to the Treaties. This should be initiated with the launch of a Convention following the outcome of the Conference.”

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The Union of European Federalists (UEF) is a pan-European, non-governmental political organisation dedicated to the promotion of European political unity. For more than 70 years UEF has been a leading voice in the promotion of European unity and an early campaigner for key milestones in the development of the European Communities and then the European Union. With 25 national sections and over 400 local groups across Europe, UEF promotes a federal Europe among citizens and political representatives at all levels of government. More on: www.federalists.eu.

PRESS CONTACT:
Anna Echterhoff
anna.echterhoff@federalists.eu

The Union of European Federalists (UEF) calls on the European Commission to take a step forward by requesting for a Health Union on the basis of Art. 168.5 TFEU in its next proposal for a regulation on severe cross-border health threats:

“Since the beginning of this unprecedented pandemic crisis, Europe has become its global epicenter. The second wave of the COVID-19 is ferociously sweeping the continent, while at the same time drastically reshaping the lives of our European citizens and our European way of life. It is time to act together, with common guidelines and a single regulation in the fight against the virus, to avoid discrepancies that weaken our capacity of reaction”, UEF President and Member of the European Parliament Sandro GOZI says.

“We federalists have been convening, with particular emphasis in these last months, on the urgency to launch a Health Union, necessary to strengthen the mandate of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Art. 168. 5 TFEU provides the legal framework to establish it, on the basis of the principle of subsidiarity, which means that each problem must be tackled at the level where it can be better solved. Since pandemics know no borders, the key to a lasting solution lies with the Health Union as part of a stronger social and political integration at European level”, continues GOZI.

“And the truth is that we are not the only ones who believe this. The Health Union was presented as a key reform by the Commission’s President Ursula von der Leyen in her State of the Union Speech in September 2020”, emphasizes GOZI.

President von der Leyen said: “For me, it is crystal clear – we need to build a stronger European Health Union. And to start making this a reality, we must now draw the first lessons from the health crisis”.

UEF reiterates the call on the European institutions to agree on an interinstitutional declaration on the Conference on the Future of Europe. “It is therefore we demand and expect to see the European Commission’s lead on this urgent matter to advance health guarantees for European citizens. In this sense, we call again on the German Presidency of the Council to call for the Conference on the Future of Europe to be launched as soon as possible, to involve citizens in the debate on how to build a stronger European Union”, GOZI concludes.

For background information:

HERE and HERE

The Union of European Federalists (UEF) welcomes the positive outcome of the Multiannual Financial Framework’s political agreement for 2021-2027 and new Own Resources.

Following ten weeks of intensive talks, the Parliament’s budget negotiators’ decision with the Presidency of the Council regarding the confirmation for the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF 2021-2027), represents a significant win for Europe and its citizens:

“Today, Europe has historically won with this agreement. After weeks of negotiations, we finally have a political compromise that can live up to the European citizens’ expectations and challenges our current times,” says GOZI. “Thanks to the European Parliament’s commitment, this package is bigger than the one presented by national governments in the summer; for that, I warmly congratulate the EP budget negotiators to make possible this historic step for a federal Europe together with the Council Presidency,” continues GOZI. 

“Ambitious ideas on common debt and new own resources to get out of the crisis, solidarity, and digital and ecological transformation are exactly what we as federalists have been convening,” states UEF President and Member of the European Parliament Sandro GOZI. « Recalling on new resources we as federalists are very pleased to see that the agreement ensures and increases the budget allocated to the major top-ups of EU flagship programmes like Horizon, Erasmus+ which were about to pay the price for the health crisis we are currently facing, jeopardizing our current and future generations of Europeans,” stresses GOZI. “Moreover, we have a clear timetable for the introduction of fiscal justice and ecological transition. UEF will be closely following and advocating to make sure that the Commission and the Council will fully respect the calendar to implement them.”

“The next clear step forward to consolidate this path is the need to give the European Parliament the power to share decisions on own resources. UEF fully backs the European Parliament’s legislative resolution that implies a Treaty reform on this regard,” says GOZI. “We reiterate our call on the German Presidency of the Council to launch the Conference on the Future of Europe with celerity, to involve citizens and the civil society in the debate on how to build a stronger European Union”, concludes GOZI.

The UEF urges the European Parliament, as a matter of necessity and urgency, to fight for genuine European Own resources that are designed, collected, and managed at the European level. An urgent need is even more pressing in the event of establishing the Recovery Fund in the form proposed by the Commission – thus launching the debate for the creation of an autonomous fiscal capacity of the EU.