(Ordinary legislative procedure: first reading)

The European Parliament,

–  having regard to the Commission proposal to Parliament and the Council (COM(2020)0408),

–  having regard to Article 294(2) and the third paragraph of Article 175 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, pursuant to which the Commission submitted the proposal to Parliament (C9‑0150/2020),

–  having regard to Article 294(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

–  having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee of 16 July 2020(1),

–  having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions of 14 October 2020(2),

–  having regard to the provisional agreement approved by the committees responsible under Rule 74(4) of its Rules of Procedure, the undertaking given by the Council representative by letter of 22 December 2020 to approve Parliament’s position, in accordance with Article 294(4) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

–  having regard to Rule 59 of its Rules of Procedure,

–  having regard to the joint deliberations of the Committee on Budgets and the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs under Rule 58 of the Rules of Procedure,

–  having regard to the opinions of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, the Committee on Transport and Tourism, the Committee on Budgetary Control and the Committee on Regional Development,

–  having regard to the position in the form of amendments of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality,

–  having regard to the letter from the Committee on Constitutional Affairs,

–  having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgets and the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (A9-0214/2020),

1.  Adopts its position at first reading hereinafter set out;

2.  Approves the joint statement by Parliament, the Council and the Commission annexed to this resolution;

3.  Approves the joint statement by Parliament and the Commission annexed to this resolution;

4.  Takes note of the statements by the Commission annexed to this resolution;

5.  Calls on the Commission to refer the matter to Parliament again if it replaces, substantially amends or intends to substantially amend its proposal;

6.  Instructs its President to forward its position to the Council, the Commission and the national parliaments.

(1) OJ C 364, 28.10.2020, p. 132. (2) OJ C 440, 18.12.2020, p. 160.

(As an agreement was reached between Parliament and Council, Parliament's position corresponds to the final legislative act, Regulation (EU) 2021/241.)

Joint STATEMENT by the European Parliament, Council and Commission on the establishment of reporting requirements to enable the issuance of bonds contributing to environmental objectives for NextGenerationEU

The Commission recalls the shared political ambition of the European Green Deal. Within this framework it underlines its ambition to raise at least 30 % of the funds to be borrowed in the capital markets for the needs of NextGenerationEU through the issuance of bonds contributing to environmental objectives.

The three Institutions agree to seriously explore the possibility of introducing rules establishing reporting obligations for the Member States, in order to ensure availability of information for the purpose of evaluating the contribution to environmental objectives of the funds borrowed in the capital markets. To that end, the Commission will endeavour to make a legislative proposal to this end during the first quarter of 2021.

JOINT STATEMENT BY THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COMMISSION ON DATA COLLECTION FOR EFFECTIVE CONTROLS AND AUDITS

The European Parliament and the Commission recall the need to ensure effective controls and audits for the purposes of avoiding double funding and preventing, detecting and correcting fraud, corruption and conflict of interests in relation to the measures supported by the Recovery and Resilience Facility. The two institutions consider essential that Member States collect and record data on final recipients and beneficiaries of Union funding in an electronic standardised and interoperable format and use the single data mining tool to be provided by the Commission.

Additional STATEMENT by the Commission on data collection for effective controls and audits

The European Commission recalls its unilateral declaration on this matter under the Common Provisions Regulation, which applies mutatis mutandis to Article 22 of the Recovery and Resilience Facility Regulation.

Commission STATEMENT on the methodology for climate tracking

The Commission considers that, in order to ensure consistency, the methodology of Annex VI of the Regulation establishing the Recovery and Resilience Facility should be incorporated in the Common Provisions Regulation.