Recovery plan for Europe and the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027

Key points:

The EESC

• strongly supports the Commission's proposal – Next Generation EU – as a specific tool for a quick and effective recovery;
• takes a very positive view of the Commission's two main decisions: The first is to introduce an extraordinary financial recovery instrument as part of the multiannual financial framework. The second is to raise common debt, which will be repaid over a long period of time, and prevent the extraordinary financial burden from falling directly on the Member States in the short run;
• welcomes these two key decisions because the economies of the Member States can no longer resist the adverse effects of the crisis on their own because they are all highly dependent on each other due to the many years of consolidation of the single market;
• is of the opinion that Next Generation EU gives a signal as to how to mobilise and utilise the common EU financial resources in the future;
• considers the total amount of EUR 750 billion to be gigantic, but certainly not beyond the EU's economic means;
• appreciates the innovative and original approach that the European Commission is taking to increase the EU's fiscal base and considers this response to be a signal as to how to mobilise and utilise the EU's common financial resources in a modern way in the future;
• strongly welcomes the fact that the newly proposed instrument should be closely coordinated with the European Semester process;
• welcomes the Commission's proposal for an EU budget that intends to introduce additional genuine own resources based on different taxes (revenues from the EU Emissions Trading System, digital taxation, large companies' revenues);
• strongly calls for the measures proposed by the Commission to be made operational as soon as possible, with the time factor being essential. It therefore calls on the Council to reach a consensus without delay;
• would finally like to note that the crisis has once again accentuated the need to speed up the reforms undertaken for the eurozone and overcome the limitations that still prevent genuine economic, social, fiscal and political integration.