Quote of the week by Iratxe García, S&D Group president, on the Recovery Fund
“With a green light from European leaders, now is the time for bold and innovative leadership from the Commission on the Recovery Fund. We face a severe emergency forcing us to act very fast and with concrete measures to avoid an explosion of unbearable social consequences. The Recovery Fund needs at least 1.5 trillion euros, in addition to the Multiannual EU budget and based on grants, not loans.”
EU leaders this week gave the green light to the European Commission to present a Recovery Plan for the COVID-19 crisis. This comes after pressure from the S&D Group and from the European Parliament in a resolution voted on last week.
Ahead of the European Council, we sent a letter to Commission President von der Leyen and Council President Michel outlining the main S&D demands on the framework and financing of the fund. You can watch a video message to EU leaders from S&D Group leader Iratxe García here.
The European Green Deal will be a crucial part of any plan to recover from the impact of COVID-19. In this video, S&D MEPs Miriam Dalli and Jytte Guteland explain why.
Next week, the S&D Group will discuss the Recovery Plan with First Vice President Frans Timmermans on Wednesday 29 April. S&D Bureau Members and Heads of Delegations will meet on Monday 27 April.
Core activities of the Parliament continue next week with remote meetings for MEPs working on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home affairs, as well as for Members on the Petitions committee and the Fisheries committee. There will also be meetings on Agriculture and Rural Development, on Internal Market and Consumer Protection, as well as a meeting of the Security and Defence subcommittee.
While Labour Day 2020 might not look like a usual 1 May, our sense of solidarity and togetherness will be stronger than ever. In online, remote events across Europe, we will be joining the European Trade Union Confederation and its affiliated unions to express support for #1MaySolidarity and to protest against precarious work.
You can get involved in #1MaySolidarity and keep up-to-date on all our reactions to next week’s events on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
