The growing distance between EU institutions and citizens’ needs MARCO ZANNI, President ID Group The lack of trust in EU institutions among There are still too many unresolved citizens is at this point a consolidated important issues in Brussels. reality. From plans for the economic recovery in By centralizing all kinds of decisions and response to the Covid-19 crisis to often arrogating non-existent powers, immigration, about which the stalemate supporters of a federalist European on issues such as radicalization and the Union have instead deliberately decided exoduses in the Mediterranean persists, to ignore Member States' political, and let's not forget the ongoing cultural and economic differences, and negotiations to reach a post-Brexit to marginalize common sense motions, agreement. which went in the opposite direction of the unique thought established by The EU is continuously failing to achieve Brussels. all the goals that - at least in words - it had set itself. Thus, the focus on priorities has This is not the Europe we want, and shifted from certainly not the one its founding fathers finding had in mind. solutions to meet the needs of citizens to bureaucratic issues and inter-institutional squabbles. From the respect of national legitimate prerogatives to the diktats imposed by few bureaucrats. We will therefore discuss again the results achieved at the European Council on the Recovery Fund, whose delay was largely caused by the European Parliament itself, which was well aware that forcing the hand on a political mechanism would have most likely led to Polish and Hungarian vetoes. 1 What you will NOT find in the next Plenary Last week the BUDGET committee European Parliament offices in approved several building projects by Brussels different EU institutions. No plenary vote is needed for these procedures. The European Parliament has decided to purchase the WIERTZ building, for Europa Experience in Paris, Place de which the European Parliament la Madeleine currently has a usufruct contract. The 1 452 m2 building will feature a Its gross surface area covers 18 073 m2 360° panoramic cinema, a modular of which about 10 000 m2 consists of meeting room, an interactive exhibition net office space and the price space and a role-play game. requested is EUR 74,9 million. The proposed contract duration is for a EEAS Buenos Aires Office, Argentina period of 18 years, and the European Parliament will pay EUR 1 750 000 in The 1 237 m2 office building is priced annual rent, EUR 159 069 annually for at EUR 7,53 million. offsetting basic fit-out costs, EUR EUR 175 175 000 000 annually in charges and The net cost for the European External EUR 2 200 000 once-off for specific fit- Action Service would be EUR 11 out works. million over 20 years, covering the purchase price (EUR 7,53 million), the Europa Experience in Rome, Piazza cost of fit-out works, removal and start- Venezia up costs to the amount of EUR 1,97 million operating cost for 20 years of The 922 m2 building will feature a EUR 3,86 million, estimated revenues reception area, an interactive space, a from co-location of EUR 1,25 million, flat-screen cinema, a role-play game and revenues from the sale of the and a meeting room. current office premises at EUR 1,07 million. The proposed lease contract runs for a fixed period of 12 years, with a tacit The ID Group deplores the lack of renewal for another 6 years. The transparency concerning the building European Parliament will pay policy of EU institutions and considers EUREUR 903 000 03 000 annual rent and all these projects as an outrageous EUR EUR 37 37 000 000 annually for charges. waste of taxpayers’ money. 2 Heading towards a "no-deal"? Nicolas BAY, 1st Vice-President ID Group There are only a few days left to try and It is indeed this original anti-democratic reach an agreement with the United and counter-productive position that is Kingdom in order to avoid the "no-deal". the cause of the current impasse. Angela Merkel said: "We don't need a Let's hope that French fishermen are not deal at any price". A few days later, victims of all these mistakes. Clément Beaune repeated these words in an interview with the JDD and threatened an agreement that did not respect the French interests with a veto. But the Commission seems ready to abandon them for fear of "no-deal". If the RN has welcomed the democratic choice of the British people, it is now up to each of them to defend their interests. Those of France include an agreement on fishing, which should have been the precondition for the opening of negotiations on the rest. It is out of the question to make a gift to the United Kingdom on this subject. This is why we must point the finger at the Brussels Commission and the European Parliament, which never accepted Brexit and always wanted to punish the British, treated as vassals rather than partners. 3 The EU is depriving Europe of its economic livelihood Jörg MEUTHEN, 2nd Vice-President ID Group The results of last week’s summit look It looks like the EU and the current like pure mockery. While the EU leaders European governments have no talk about “recovery” cockily, they agreed intention to recover our countries, but to in fact on nothing else than Europe’s promote their final economic and social final deindustrialisation. decline. The decision to reduce the continent’s CO 2 emission forcibly to only 55 percent of the level of 1990 will not allow any recovery, but deal a death blow to the already damaged economy. On a green ideological whim, they are depriving Europe of its livelihood systematically. Instead of promoting new, cleaner and more efficient technologies, instead of using this crisis to modernize our industries, the EU forces itself to absurd “climate objectives” which will ruin not only, but especially the automotive industry and a secure and affordable energy supply as fundaments of our prosperity and guarantee for millions of jobs. Not even the monstrous redistribution by the MFF and the so-called “recovery plan” will stop this. 4 The EU is paying the consequences of its own mistakes Marco CAMPOMENOSI, Italian Delegation Critical political and economic issues we would welcome an advance payment were covered at the European Council’s of 20% to be allocated by 2021. Summit that took place in Brussels at the end of last week. Finally, the concrete possibility of a “no deal scenario” by the 31st of December Other political parties and groups have has been triggered by the EU’s punitive often exploited the position of the Lega approach towards the UK. delegation about the above-mentioned affairs, because they are aware that our As we have continuously stated, the EU critics are always profound, founded and should have been more conciliatory. concrete. We regret that the new MFF has reduced the allocation of resources of structural programs that are essential to boost economic development, such as the Connecting Europe Facility for infrastructures. As regards to RRF, mechanism inevitably linked to the EU long-term budget, we still have perplexity about the wide range of obligations that condition the disbursement of such funds on criteria that leave many doubts about the political discretion of each Member State. Among our concerns, there is also the possibility of an advance disbursement of funds: although the Commission seems to be resisting it, 5 Importance of SMEs in the national industrial networks Jérôme RIVIERE, French Delegation Our small and medium-sized enterprises With no protection at its borders, it has are at the heart of the economies of our left its member countries to face unfair European nations, for employment, competition. Two measures could help know-how and innovation. French SMEs SMEs in France in concrete terms. in particular are an extraordinary example of this; this heritage must be The first is the end of double taxation for preserved, protected and promoted. all those who work from home, with the abolition of the “property tax on But these treasures of experience and companies”, which amounts to double creativity have a common enemy, that of taxation for entrepreneurs working from the European Union, which is subject to home and already paying property or the interests of large groups, unfair housing taxes. competition, and the Union's increasingly restrictive administrative The second is the introduction of a and technical standards, while financial French-style "Small Business Act", to capitalism can live its good life in a totally favour our companies over those from deregulated manner. abroad. Difficulties of access to financing, We urgently need to regain our absurd legal constraints, sovereignty in this area as well. and the prohibition of states from having a voluntarist policy: these are the obstacles facing the European driving forces. The results of this policy are catastrophic. The crisis caused by the - sometimes incomprehensible - restrictions of our governments is severely affecting these SMEs. Europe is being emptied of its living forces, preferring constant mobility to ingrained solidity, a world above ground to national expertise. 6 On the barricades for free speech Tom VANDENDRIESSCHE, Flemish Delegation Once again the European Parliament So-called hate speech laws aren’t attempts to determine limits to our free designed to tackle hate speech, but to speech. The EU Security Union Strategy silence all legitimate opposition to the put to vote on Wednesday is a security multicultural transformation of our resilience and cooperation plan in which society. the EU aims to better reflect the changing threats landscape.