The FDP, sharply criticized the construction of the EU reconstruction funds. Because in a reply of the Federal Ministry of Finance, on a written request of the FDP parliamentary group is clear that grants and loans from the Fund will, at the request of a member state will be awarded.
Kerstin Schwenn
business correspondent in Berlin.
F. A. Z.
“It is up to the member States whether they wish to apply for in addition to grants, loans,” reads the reply of the Ministry. According to the assessment of the FDP deputies Gerald Ullrich, Chairman of the Committee for the Affairs of the European Union, this construction “a loophole to cherry-picking”.
Ullrich, the F. A. Z. said on Tuesday in Berlin, no EU member state will be forced to Fund a project at least partially from loans, which he would have to pay back later to the Fund. Rather, he could use the grants, which need not be repaid.
“This is a serious omission,” said Ullrich. “For 390 billion Euro of public investment from grants Europe will help not so effectively and quickly from the crisis, such as 750 billion euros of investment mix of grants and loans. This is fatal: 360 of 750 billion Euro, i.e. almost half of the European reconstruction Fund, threaten to remain of no effect.“
Ullrich urges that the projects proposed by the member States of the EU-Commission, are expected to be funded from a package of grants and loans from the reconstruction Fund (structure and resilience facility). “This financing must put together just as much as the entire pot, from 46.5 percent grants and 53.5 percent loans.” The pandemic line of credit from the European stability mechanism (ESM) would be used by any member state of the EU, is a clear indication that the loans from the reconstruction Fund threatened to remain unused.
