EU Parliament: the plenary session warns Poland again. “No funds to those who do not adhere to our common values”. Plenary session of the Conference on the Future of Europe starting in Strasbourg today

(from Strasbourg) “The Constitutional Court of Poland has no legal force and independence, and is unqualified to construe the country’s Constitution”. This is said in a resolution approved by the large majority of the European Parliament, accusing the Prime Minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki, of “unduly using legal power as a tool to accomplish his own political agenda”. The EU Parliament is also against granting the EU taxpayers’ money to those governments that “blatantly, specifically and systematically” undermine the European values. Poland is also at the centre of the talks of the European leaders at a summit that is taking place in Brussels. On the plenary’s last day of work, several votes have been cast by the MPs. As to the Pandora Papers, the EU Parliament asked the national authorities to start in-depth investigations into unlawful activities and the EU Commission to check that the existing rules are adhered to and to fill the loopholes that currently make evasion, avoidance and recycling possible. In the run-up to Cop26, the EU Parliament took the position that one of its delegations will take to Glasgow, asking, for instance, that all direct and indirect subsidies for fossil fuels be gradually removed in the EU by 2025 or that the G20 countries take global leadership themselves and pledge to achieve carbon neutrality by and no later than 2050, including China.

Then, the MPs warned that the obligations undertaken in terms of the funds for climate for the developing countries should be met. The European Parliament resumed talking about the purchase and distribution of vaccines too and asked, again, for transparency: in the processes for the search, purchase and distribution of vaccines, in the purchase agreements with suppliers, in public investments, in the cost of vaccines. Partly with a view to make vaccines more widely available all over the world. Then, the EU budget for 2022 was voted on: most of the cuts made by the EU Council (overall, 1.43 billion euros) have been cancelled, the funds for programmes and policies in support of post-pandemic recovery (e.g. Horizon Europe, Connecting Europe Facility, Life, Erasmus) have been increased compared to the EU Commission’s budget (2.7 billion euros), and so have the funds for humanitarian aids as well as the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (+20%), security and defence (+ 80 million euros). Now, negotiations with the EU Council will begin. The MPs have passed new regulations to protect road traffic victims in their countries or elsewhere in the EU. The bill of law that has been voted on harmonises the compulsory minimum coverage across the EU.

As from today, as soon as the European parliamentary assembly finishes working, the Parliament’s floor in Strasbourg will host the plenary session of the Conference on the Future of Europe.
Valentina Bombelli