Brussels, Feb. 10, 2021 (Lusa) - The European Parliament's president, David Sassoli, called Wednesday'sadoption of the regulation creating the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism "a historic vote for Europe" and said there was now "no time to lose".

"It is another historic decision that will guide our recovery. It is Europe moving in the right direction, providing solutions that are in stark contrast to the past, able to support citizens by giving states the resources they need to plan their future," Sassoli said in a statement published after the result of the vote was announced.

Underlining that the "European Union does not stop", he said that "it is now up to the member states to start 'NextGenerationEU' [EU Recovery and Resilience Fund]", by speeding up ratification of the increase in the EU's own resources, which he described as "essential for issuing debt and financing recovery".

"There is no time to lose. Any delay will create enormous damage to citizens and businesses", Sassoli added.

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, also welcomed the vote in the EP, saying that society must be helped to "emerge from the economic crisis".

"Fighting the virus with vaccines is essential. But we also have to help citizens, businesses and communities out of the economic crisis. (...) I welcome the positive vote of the EP as an important step to activate the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism", she said.

Parliament adopted the regulation establishing the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, the central pillar of the European Union (EU) recovery package to tackle the socio-economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a vote on Tuesday evening, the outcome of which was announced by the president of the assembly, David Sassoli, at the start of today's session in Brussels, the Mechanism received a favourable vote from 582 MEPs, 40 votes against and 69 abstentions.

With this European Parliament's approval, the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism will come into force in the second half of this month.

Member States can then start officially submitting their national recovery and resilience plans for access to the funds, once they have been assessed by the European Commission and adopted by the Council, currently chaired by the Portuguese presidency.

The Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, with €672.5 billion in grants and loans, is the main component of the recovery package agreed by the EU in 2020 to tackle the social and economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the 'NextGenerationEU'.

Eight EU Member States have yet to submit their national recovery and resilience plans to the European Commission to access EU post-crisis funds for Covid-19. In contrast, 19 countries have already done so, including Portugal.

An official source from the EU executive told Lusa, without specifying, that the Commission had received draft plans or a large number of components from 19 EU member states by Tuesday.

A source linked to the process told Lusa that these eight countries were Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Ireland, Austria, Lithuania, Poland, Malta and Estonia.

TEYA/ADB // ADB.

Lusa