None of the national recovery plans that 13 Member States submitted to the European Commission by the end of May as part of the Next Generation EU Recovery Plan fully meet the objective of the deep socioeconomic transformation needed to put the European Union on a sustainable path, the German think-tank Zoe Institute said in a study to be published on Wednesday 9 June.
One of the main criticisms is that the ‘do no significant harm’ principle enshrined in the regulation introducing the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the budgetary instrument at the heart of Next Generation EU, is not applied rigorously in the selection of investments and reforms.
This assessment applies to all national plans. “Member States have not applied this principle as thoroughly as they should have”, Elizabeth Dirth, who led the study at the institute, told EUROPE on Tuesday 8 June. She mentioned three problem areas: - the impact of new infrastructure projects on the environment and biodiversity, including excessive use of non-green hydrogen; - the increase in energy consumption linked to the digital transition; - insufficient consideration of the rules of the circular economy, particularly in managing the waste generated by the production of electronic equipment.
On this last point, France and Slovenia have taken notable initiatives, the authors of the study note.
According to Zoe Institute, another issue that is insufficiently taken into account by national plans is the social dimension and, in particular, the insufficient appropriation of projects by the population at local level.
Mrs Dirth pointed out that increased automation in some labour-intensive sectors will lead to job losses for already vulnerable groups. “I am concerned about the level of social protection for these people”, she said.
However, she noted commendable initiatives in Spain to include disadvantaged communities in an energy transition process. She also noted the emphasis on training in many national recovery plans, especially for young people.
To carry out the study, the Zoe Institute developed a methodology based on a specific index - the Recovery Index for Transformative Change (RITC) - which, according to Mrs Dirth, allows the social and environmental objectives of a national plan to be examined “in a holistic way”.
The Zoe Institute study will be available at: https://bit.ly/3iqnWfL (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)