Regulation (EU) 2020/2221

What it is

to introduce more flexibility in the support provided by the European Structural and Investment Funds to help repair the damage following the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and to prepare for an ecological, digital and resilient economic recovery (REACT-EU). PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council. ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure on an equal footing with the Council. BACKGROUND: in order to address the repercussions of the coronavirus crisis, the Commission has presented a number of proposals to ensure that all available financial means from the programmes for the period 2014-2020 financed by the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESI Funds) can be mobilised to provide immediate responses to the direct and indirect effects of the crisis. The Committee on Regional Development adopted the report by Andrey NOVAKOV (EPP, BG) and Constanze KREHL (S&D, DE) on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 as regards exceptional additional resources and implementing arrangements under the Investment for growth and jobs goal to provide assistance for fostering crisis repair in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and preparing a green, digital and resilient recovery of the economy (REACT-EU). The REACT-EU proposal seeks to amend the Common Provisions Regulation for the 2014-2020 cohesion funds. It provides for an additional budget in two parts, for 2020 and for 2021-2022, and also sets out a number of derogations from the normal rules for cohesion spending, which specifically relate to the additional budget for the economic and social recovery. The committee recommended that the European Parliament’s position adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure should amend the Commission proposal as follows: The additional resources shall be made available for budgetary commitments for the years 2020 to 2022, in addition to the overall planned resources, as follows: - 2020: EUR 5 000 000 000 in current prices (EUR 4 805 843 906 in 2018 prices); - 2021: EUR 42 434 400 000 in current prices (EUR 39 987 184 320 in 2018 prices); - 2022: EUR 10 820 400 000 in current prices (EUR 9 996 674 058 in 2018 prices). The additional resources for 2020 shall stem from an increase in the overall resources for economic, social and territorial cohesion in the multi-annual financial framework 2014-2020 and shall be included in the budget. The resources for 2021 and 2022 shall constitute external assigned revenues. - that at least 95% of the additional resources be made available under the "Investment for Growth and Jobs" goal and that at least 3% and up to 5% of these resources be made available under the "European Territorial Cooperation" goal (i.e. Interreg), since border regions have been particularly affected by the crisis; - that additional resources may also be made available in 2023 and 2024 for budgetary commitments by means of a delegated act and on the basis of a reasoned request from a Member State. REACT-EU is considering creating a new,…

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