Recovery and resilience fund: Council gives green light to amended plans of Belgium, Cyprus, Croatia, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Poland and Slovenia
The Council today approved the Commission’s positive assessment of the amended recovery and resilience plans (RRPs) submitted by Belgium, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Cyprus, Malta, Croatia and Slovenia.
According to the analysis of the Commission, the targeted modifications do not affect the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and coherence of their recovery and resilience plans.
Belgium
The amendments to 22 measures in the RRP of Belgium relate for the most part to putting in place better implementation alternatives than previously included and reducing administrative burden. The estimated total cost of Belgium’s RRP amounts to €5.2 billion.
Cyprus
The revisions requested by Cyprus concern 87 measures. Reasons for the amendments range from certain measures now being considered partially unachievable, better alternatives found to achieve the original ambition of some measures, and to reduce administrative burden. The estimated total costs for the RRP of Cyprus are €1.2 billion.
Croatia
The Croatian amendments concern 30 measures with most changes reflecting new circumstances such as demand, inflation and better alternatives for implementation. The estimated total cost of Croatia’s plan is €10 billion.
Italy
Italy requested 67 amendments to its RRP, most of which relate to implementation improvements. Other amendments aim to reduce administrative burden and to help mitigate unexpected factors. In its request, Italy also asked to add two measures in the field of sustainable transport to its plan. The estimated total cost of Italy’s RRP is €194.4 billion.
Lithuania
The 74 amendments to the RRP submitted by Lithuania address changes in market demand and the impact of inflation and delays, as well as the need to implement better alternatives to some measures and reduce administrative burden. Lithuania also proposed to remove targets and milestones that were no longer feasible or necessary. The plan’s estimated total costs amount to just over €3.8 billion.
Malta
The amendments to the RRP of Malta concern 18 measures with most relating to the implementation of better alternatives and two measures now considered only partially unachievable. The estimated total costs of the RRP are €336 million.
Poland
Poland requested that 42 measures be revised in order to implement better alternatives, to reduce administrative burden and to amend some measures no longer considered partially or fully achievable. Poland’s estimated total costs under the plan amounts to almost €60 billion
Slovenia
The 50 revisions requested by Slovenia aim to reduce administrative burden and to reflect better implementation alternatives. The estimated total costs for the Slovenian plan are €2.2 billion.
Background
The RRF is the EU’s large-scale financial support programme in response to the challenges the COVID-19 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 pandemic.
To benefit from the facility, member states must submit recovery and resilience plans (RRPs) to the Commission, setting out the reforms and investments they intend to implement by the end of August 2026.
To date, all RRPs have been approved and around €317 billion has been disbursed.
