Rearmament, why the EU Parliament rejects the path chosen by the Commission

BRUSSELS - The European Parliament's legal affairs committee yesterday endorsed the opinion of the assembly's legal service, deeming the approval process for the new EUR 150 billion European rearmament funding programme to be unjustified. The legislative proposal submitted at the time by the European Commission provides only for approval by the Council, without any passage through Parliament.

The SAFE plan provides for loans to states to be used for investments in the military industry and to be financed by issuing EU bonds. According to the legal service of the parliamentary assembly, Article 122 of the Treaties, which forms the legal basis of the proposal, is inappropriate. The article was written for energy issues. It would therefore be more correct, according to the opinion, to use Article 173, which has to do with industrial policies.

The decision is now up to the President of the European Parliament. In the past, Roberta Metsola has criticised the Commission's choice. Last night it was not clear how she intends to follow the recommendation of the legal affairs committee in concrete terms. It is likely that Brussels has avoided passage through the Parliament because the rearmament issue does not command unanimity among MEPs. The NextGenerationEU was also approved under Article 122.

The Community choice was welcomed by the member states, who want to give the Union's new defence policies an intergovernmental connotation. In response, the European Parliament points out that the revision of the assembly's operating rules has greatly reduced the average duration of legislative processes.