Recovery fund: Council greenlights updated national plans for Czechia, Spain, Netherlands, Portugal and Slovenia

The Council today adopted implementing decisions approving the amended recovery and resilience plans of Czechia, Spain, Netherlands, Portugal and Slovenia.

The amended recovery and resilience plans now include a new REPowerEU chapter. This will contribute to accelerating the countries’ transition towards clean energy, diversifying their energy supplies and improving their energy efficiency.

To finance the increased ambition of their plans, the countries have requested to transfer to the plans their share of the Brexit Adjustment Reserve (BAR), in line with the REPowerEU Regulation.

According to the analysis of the Commission, the modifications put forward by the member states do not affect the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and coherence of their recovery and resilience plans.

Czechia

On 30 June 2023, Czechia submitted its amended recovery and resilience plan, which includes a new REPowerEU chapter.

The plan is now worth €9.2 billion (€8.4 in grants and €818 million in loans) and covers 58 reforms and 105 investments.

The modified plan has a strong focus on the green transition, devoting 42.9% (up from 42.4% in the original plan) of the available funds to measures that support climate objectives.

Czechia’s revised plan’s digital ambition has increased, thanks to more investments in the cybersecurity of digital public administration systems. The plan now devotes 22.8% (up from the previous 21.4%) of its total allocation to support the country’s digital transition. The modified plan’s social dimension remains very ambitious.

Spain

On 6 June 2023, Spain submitted a modified national plan, including a REPowerEU Chapter.

The modified plan has a strong focus on the green transition, allocating 40% of available funds to measures that support climate objectives. The Spanish plan’s digital ambition and social dimension have also increased.

The plan is now worth €163 billion (€83 billion in loans and €80 billion in grants) and covers 111 reforms and 142 investments.

Netherlands

On 6 July 2023, the Netherlands submitted a modified recovery and resilience plan, including a new REPowerEU chapter.

The modified plan has a considerably stronger focus on the green transition, allocating 55% (up from 48% in the original plan) of the available funds to measures that support climate objectives. The level of ambition of the original plan remains unchanged in other areas.

The plan is now worth €5.4 billion in grants and covers 22 reforms and 28 investments.

Portugal

On 26 May 2023, Portugal submitted a modified national recovery and resilience plan, including a REPowerEU chapter.

The plan is now worth €22.2 billion in grants and loans and covers 44 reforms and 117 investments.

The modified plan has a stronger focus on the green transition, devoting 41.2% (up from 37.9% in the original plan) of the available funds to measures that support climate objectives. Portugal’s plan remains ambitious in the digital sphere. It devotes 21.1% of its total allocation to support the digital transition. The modified plan’s social dimension remains very ambitious. 

Slovenia

On 14 July 2023, Slovenia submitted its request to amend its recovery and resilience plan, which includes a new REPowerEU chapter.

The modified plan has a stronger focus on the green transition, devoting 48.9% (up from 42.5% in the original plan) of the available funds to measures that support climate objectives. Slovenia’s plan continues to significantly contribute to the digital transition and its social dimension remains very ambitious.

The plan is now worth almost €2.7 billion and covers 34 reforms and 49 investments.

Background

The recovery and resilience facility (RRF) is the EU’s programme of large-scale financial support in response to the challenges the pandemic has posed to the European economy. It is the centrepiece of NextGenerationEU, a temporary recovery instrument that allows the Commission to raise funds to help repair the immediate economic and social damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

To benefit from the facility’s €724 billion (in current prices), member states submit recovery and resilience plans (RRPs) to the Commission, setting out the reforms and investments they intend to implement by the end of 2026.

To date, all RRPs have been approved, 39 payment requests have been received from 22 member states, and €174.7 billion have been disbursed.

Regulation 2023/241 as regards REPowerEU chapters, in force since 1 March 2023, increases the RRF financial envelope by €20 billion in new grants. In addition, member states are able to voluntarily transfer up to €5.4 billion from the Brexit Adjustment Reserve to the RRF to finance REPowerEU measures. This comes on top of the existing transfer possibilities of 5% from the cohesion policy funds (up to €17.9 billion).

During 2023, it is expected that gradually each of the 27 member states will submit amendments to their national recovery and resilience plans at least once, to access the new REPowerEU grants, to request available loans, or to take into account the updated RRF allocation.