On Tuesday 13 July, as expected, EU finance ministers approved the recovery plans of 12 Member States that had received a positive assessment from the European Commission before the end of June.
The countries concerned are: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain (see EUROPE 12759/9).
Calling it a “historic step", Slovenian Finance Minister Andrej Šircelj underlined the importance of the Next Generation EU Recovery Plan, which will help boost the economies of the EU-27 Member States by facilitating the environmental and digital transitions through a joint debt package led by the European Commission.
The important thing now for the countries concerned is to “meet the milestones” and “fulfil the targets” set out in the national plans, he stressed. He referred to a “positive” discussion between the ministers, which did not focus on any particular plan, but on general considerations such as the importance of controls to monitor financial flows.
The 12 Member States will sign financing agreements so that the European Commission can release the first instalments of aid, possibly before the end of July. The EU institution was due to carry out a third capital-raising operation on the markets on Tuesday to pre-finance the national recovery plans that have already been approved.
Mr Šircelj confirmed that an extraordinary Ecofin Council will be held on Monday 26 July, via video conference, to approve “four or five” more national recovery plans. European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis mentioned the following countries: Slovenia, Lithuania, Cyprus, Croatia and potentially Ireland.
The other national plans will be discussed in the EU Council after the summer break. This is particularly the case for the Hungarian recovery plan, for which the European Commission is no longer ruling out a delay, even though its assessment should have been presented on Monday 12 July (see EUROPE 12760/20 and 12757/16). Mr Šircelj and Mr Dombrovskis assured that the Hungarian plan is being assessed in the same way as the other 26 national plans, namely against the “eleven criteria” set out in the Recovery and Resilience Facility regulation, even though the Orbán government is being criticised for its policies stigmatising LGBTI people.
In the EU Council, the adoption of a plan takes place by a qualified majority of Member States. A blocking minority of countries is needed to prevent this, with France and Germany playing a dominant role. Some believe that Paris would prefer a unanimous agreement at the OECD on international tax reform, which Hungary still rejects.
On Tuesday, the European Commission announced that it had officially received Malta’s EUR 316.4 million recovery plan, exclusively in the form of grants. Only the Netherlands and Bulgaria have not yet submitted their recovery plans due to the lack of a government in place. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)