The finalisation in all Member States of the ratification procedure of the decision on own resources to the EU budget allows the European Commission to establish its financing strategy for the Next Generation EU Recovery Plan for 2021, with capital raising operations on the markets to start in June.
On Thursday 27 May, EU Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn welcomed the fact that after the votes in the Polish and Austrian parliaments, all Member States have ratified the ‘own resources’ decision. He expressed confidence that the finalisation of all procedures will take place “still in May”.
“In the Netherlands, Austria, Hungary, Romania and Poland”, certain formalities remain necessary, such as the enactment of the national ratification measure and/or its formal notification at the European level, Balazs Ujvari, a spokesman for the EU institution, said on Friday 28 May.
This positive momentum “allows the Commission to go to the financial markets already before the end of June”, he said. He could not be more specific about the timetable, arguing that the raising of capital will depend on market conditions and the Member States’ financing operations which will take place in June.
Next week, the European institution is expected to adopt a decision in which it will set a ceiling for the amounts it will borrow in 2021, detail its financing plan for the next six months and identify the financial entities that will help it carry out its capital raising operations on the markets on behalf of the EU27.
The first funds raised will be allocated to the national recovery plans that have received the final green light from the EU Council. Plans formally submitted by the end of April could be the subject of a proposal for a recommendation for adoption “by the end of June”, said Commission spokeswoman Marta Wieczorek. The EU Council will then have one month to formally adopt the Recovery Plan so that the first payments to the adopted recovery plans could be made “in July”.
Thirteen national recovery plans were submitted at the end of April (see EUROPE 12711/2). Recovery plans submitted after this deadline are likely to be the subject of a Commission proposal for a recommendation in July. At this stage, nineteen countries have submitted their national plans.
Sweden and Ireland were the latest countries to officially submit their national plans on Friday. The Swedish and Irish plans call for €3.2 billion and €1 billion of EU financial support in the form of grants only.
It should be noted that Poland has requested a one-month extension for the assessment of its recovery plan.
More information: https://bit.ly/3xDW6C9 (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)