European Parliament to raise rule-of-law conditions for EU recovery fund after summit

The European Parliament will seek clarification on tying a new coronavirus recovery fund to democratic values after the matter was left open at an EU summit this week.

“We need to see exactly what intervention measures are to be used to support this,” David Sassoli, the assembly’s president, said on Wednesday. “We can’t support a reduction in our expectations for shared values.”

“We think this is an open issue, we want to participate. Here we will not be satisfied with just mentions of principle,” Sassoli noted.

Asked if the assembly could block the agreement made at the summit on the EU’s long-term budget and the recovery fund, Sassoli said he was determined that the European Parliament be respected, Reuters reports.