Commission releases €14.9 million to Lithuania under the Recovery and Resilience Facility
The Commission has today authorised a disbursement to Lithuania of €14.9 million (net of pre-financing) under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).
As for all Member States, payments made to Lithuania under the RRF are performance-based and depend on the implementation by Lithuania of the investments and reforms described in its recovery and resilience plan.
The disbursement corresponds to two milestones, namely milestones 142 and 144, that were part of the first payment request, which Lithuania submitted in November 2022. The Commission, in April 2023, concluded that two out of the 33 milestones included in this first payment request – that is, milestones 142 and 144 – relating to taxation reforms were not satisfactorily fulfilled. On that basis the Commission suspended €26.2 million (see, for more information, here).
Lithuania took additional policy action in the six months following the suspension and, in October 2023, submitted additional information to the Commission on these reforms.
In December 2023, the Commission concluded that one of these two milestones (milestone 144) was satisfactorily fulfilled. This finding was confirmed by the Economic and Financial Committee. Accordingly, the Commission has now unlocked €8.73 million, which is the amount suspended in April 2023 corresponding to this milestone.
In relation to the remaining milestone 142, the Commission notified Lithuania in December that it continued to consider the milestone as not satisfactorily fulfilled, while recognising the progress made by Lithuania towards achieving the milestone. Taking Lithuania’s observations into account, the Commission has now concluded its assessment of milestone 142, unlocking another payment to Lithuania of €8.73 million from the previously suspended amount, in recognition of the progress made. However, at the same time, since this milestone was not considered satisfactorily fulfilled, the assessment Commission also reduces the RRF grant support for Lithuania by €8.73 million from the total quantity allocated to this milestone.
Overall, the Commission decision releases a gross amount of €17.47 million to Lithuania. After proportional clearing of pre-financing, which Lithuania has already received, €14.9 million will be disbursed to Lithuania.
Overall, Lithuania’s recovery and resilience plan consists of €3.85 billion, of which €2.3 billion in grants and €1.55 billion in loans. It includes 208 milestones and targets. To date, the Commission has disbursed 35.2% of the fundsallocated to Lithuania under the Recovery and Resilience Facility, i.e. more than €1.3 billion, which includes pre-financing and corresponds to the fulfilment of 37 milestones.
