The European Parliament’s resolution is an attack on the rapid approval of recovery plans

The European Parliament has adopted another resolution that proves it is completely confused in its role. The EP, going beyond its statutory powers of obtaining information, wants to assess the national recovery plans of the Member States. This time, however, the usual intensive inter-institutional wrangling by the EP’s left-wing majority is an assassination attempt against the rapid approval of the recovery plans.

In his plenary speech, Fidesz MEP Tamás Deutsch said that the Left majority in the EP wants to deeply politicise the approval of national recovery plans, making it a matter of party politics and ideology, instead of letting the Commission and the Council do this job on the basis of professional criteria. This is an attack on the impartial approval of recovery plans. MEP Deutsch added: “The draft also contains the well-known political attacks by the frugal group of countries against the Member States of the South for their allegedly irresponsible use of EU funds, a contemptuous political attack by Western Member States against the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Such parliamentary texts are also an attack on European cohesion.”

In her comment, Fidesz MEP Enikő Győri stressed that “to help the European economies hit by the coronavirus pandemic, Member States should obtain resources as soon as possible. The Commission is responsible for assessing development plans and the Council for adopting them. The European Parliament is confused about its role. It wants to replace the Commission; and evaluate national recovery plans on a political basis.”

According to MEP Győri, “the European Parliament’s right to information is fully guaranteed. The European Commission has systematically shared all the information as set forth by the relevant regulation. Yet the EP seems to have made up its mind to force a new evaluation system on the Commission without any legal grounds. Last year, too, we lost months because the EP wanted to use the rule of law mechanism to impose political conditions on the allocation of EU funds. These repeated, arbitrary and hypocritical ‘democracy actions’ do not help, but rather hinder the European economy from recovering as soon as possible”.