"I welcome today's decision by the German Constitutional Court. TThe EU stays on track with its economic recovery, following this unprecedented pandemic," EU executive president Ursula von der Leyen wrote on her social media account Twitter.
Von der Leyen added in the post that "NextGenerationEU will pave the way for a green, digital and more resilient European Union.".
The European Commissioner for the Economy, Paolo Gentiloni, used his account on the same social network to welcome the end of the deadlock in Germany.
"The decision of the German Constitutional Court is important in Germany and is a big step forward on the road to the European recovery plan," the Italian commissioner wrote.
The German Constitutional Court today rejected appeals filed against the EU's Euro800bn (current prices) post-Covid-19 recovery plan, giving the green light for Germany to ratify it.
The two chambers of the German parliament had approved the fund on 25 and 26 March. However, an initiative around the Alternative for Germany (far-right) founder had filed an emergency appeal to the TC.
In a first ruling, the Constitutional Court had ordered the suspension of the ratification process - only the signature of the president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, was missing - pending a decision.
The plaintiffs argued that the European treaties prohibit EU member states from jointly incurring debts.
The German government and the European Commission invoked Article 122, which provides for the possibility of incurring debts in the event of natural disasters or extraordinary events in one or more member states.
For the recovery plan to materialise in the summer as planned, it is necessary not only that all member states formally submit - and see approved - their recovery and resilience plans (RRP) to Brussels, but also that they complete the ratification process for the own resources decision, an indispensable step before the Commission can go to the markets to raise the 800 billion from the recovery fund, the so-called "Next Generation EU".
So far, 17 member states, including Portugal, have ratified the own resources decision, Germany is on track to become the 18th, and that leaves 10 countries to complete the procedures by May: Estonia, Poland, Hungary, Austria, Finland, Romania, the Netherlands, Ireland and Lithuania, some of which do not even have a timetable for completing the process.
In February this year, the Council adopted the regulation establishing the main instrument of the recovery fund, the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism (RRM), which will provide grants and loans to support reforms and investments in member states, for a total amount of Euro723.8 billion in current prices.
The implementation of the recovery plan is one of the main priorities of the Portuguese presidency of the Council of the EU, which, within Ecofin (finance ministers), should lead the work with a view to the indispensable approval of the RRP of the 27 Member States by the Council, once the European Commission has validated the plans.
ACC/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
