Brussels, Feb. 16, 2021 (Lusa) - The Portuguese presidency of the Council of the EU and the European Commission said on Tuesday that they expect ratifications on own resources to be completed in April so that the EU executive can start going to the markets in June.

At the end of a Council of Finance Ministers (Ecofin) video conference, run from Lisbon, Portuguese finance minister, João Leão, and Commission executive vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis insisted on the importance for member states to complete without delay the preparation of their national recovery and resilience plans and for those that have not yet done so, to complete the ratification of the decision allowing the Commission to go to the markets to raise the money that will finance the 'NextGenerationEU' recovery package.

Leão said that the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism regulation, the pillar of 'NextGenerationEU', signed last Friday by the prime minister, António Costa. The presidents of the European Parliament and the European Commission will be published on Thursday in the EU Official Journal, which means that member states can formally submit their national plans to Brussels from Friday.

The finance minister said that "the Portuguese presidency has also been following very closely" the process of ratification of the own resources decision but pointed out that only six member states have done so until now - including Portugal. He said he believed that most countries would complete the procedure in March to conclude the process in April.

"We hope that in April all countries will have ratified the own resources decision so that the European Commission can go to the market before the summer," he said.

Dombrovskis corroborated León's expectations, specifying that the Commission's objective is to begin borrowing operations, through the issue of common debt, "in June", to begin financing the European economy's recovery plan in the face of the socio-economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Commission's executive vice-president responsible for the "Economy Serving People" portfolio explained that the idea is for the Community executive to start by raising the amount necessary to cover the 13% pre-financing to which countries will be entitled to for their recovery and resilience plans, under the rules of the recovery package agreed by the EU.

"But this depends on all member states ratifying the own resources decision. Six have already done so, and many are at an advanced stage of the process. I urge the rest to do so quickly so that the Commission can start its 'NextGenerationEU' borrowing programme," the Latvian official added.

So far, only six of the 27 EU member states have ratified the own resources decision. In addition to Portugal, which approved the decision on 29 January, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Slovenia and France have also notified Brussels of the completion of the ratification process, but 21 are still missing before the European Commission can finally go to the markets.

ACC/ADB // ADB.

Lusa