MEP Juknevičienė: the EU will have an effective tool for implementation of its global policy

The European Parliament is nearing the conclusion of approval procedures for the European Union’s largest financial aid instrument for non-EU states, Global Europe, which is to have a budget of 80 billion euro. One of the four rapporteurs representing the European Parliament, MEP Rasa Juknevičienė, emphasized in a Tuesday discussion that from now on, the EU will have a strong consolidated instrument for the implementation of its global policy outside of EU borders.

“The EU is the largest donor of aid to developing countries and to its neighbourhood. However, the final result isn’t always of benefit to the EU. We have to compete with the funds proposed by autocratic regimes who propagate corruption and threaten national security and the spread of democracy. We hope that this instrument will be far more effective,” MEP R. Juknevičienė emphasizes.

She also highlighted one crucial detail in the instrument.

“For the first time, nuclear safety will be included among the aid conditions. This was the parliament’s position and we were able to defend it. However, after the incident in Belarusian airspace, it should be clear to everyone that nuclear power plants in the hands of oppressive regimes can easily become a tool for blackmail, and so, when allocating support, it is essential to take this circumstance into account,” R. Juknevičienė said.

The European People’s Party group delegation head in Lithuania, Andrius Kubilius, emphasized that R. Juknevičienė is the first Lithuanian in the history of Lithuanian parliamentarians to create a document at this level.

The MEP thanked her colleagues for solidarity and her assistants – for their high level of qualification as they worked long months on this complex financial instrument.

The Global Europe instrument combines the currently mostly separated EU financial instruments used to finance EU policy in the neighbourhood and international developmental cooperation. This instrument will be harnessed to finance the bulk of the European Union’s foreign policy activities at the global level during the upcoming seven-year period. It is comprised of several components – geographical programmes, including the Neighbourhood Programme, which will be allocated around 20 billion euro. At the same time, it also spans thematic programmes for topics such as human rights and democracy, civil society, stability and peace, as well as global challenges, rapid response actions and an emergency reserve.

The interinstitutional negotiations on the Global Europe instrument included negotiations groups from the European Parliament, European Council and European Commission. In addition, R. Juknevičienė was appointed the European Parliament’s rapporteur in July 2019 at the Development Committee.