EU DECISIONS YESTERDAY - MORE DETAILS


JULY 22:

While the dust is settles and some people are resting it is time to look in more details on the huge European agreements yesterday.

I will do that very soon on a number of topics such as how the huge recovery package will be distributed, what the main contents of the new 7 year EU budget 2021-27 are, and how the decisions on respect of the rule of law will play an important role in money transfers in the EU from now on.

The European Parliament will, of course, also have its say. It will meet tomorrow, July 23, to start its scrutiny of the decisions. After that it will be time to look at the details.

When the question of the future link between the respect for EU’s values and decisions and the hand-out of EU funds is concerned the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, said the following during his briefing of the media after the meeting:  Rule of law is a decisive criteria for budget spending!   It can hardly be said more clearly.

We also know that exactly that question is considered to be of huge importance for the European Parliament. So let us see, how it develops.   And I will later come back to the question on how it will be implemented.  The crucial new point is that decisions about it are now linked to the yearly budget decisions. And they are taken by qualitative majority. This means that “the bad boys in the class” can no longer block such decisions with a veto.

The present German EU presidency – with chancellor Angela Merkel – played a very important role in the decisions during the Council.  Germany holds the presidency until the end of this year and will together with the European Commission be very much involved in the coming implementation of the decisions.  The next presidency in the first half of 2021 is Portugal – followed by Slovenia in the second half of next year. And in 2022 it is France, who takes over during the first six months.

I also want to show you the logo of the present German EU presidency – shown on the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin:



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