The European Commission announced on Thursday 26 August that it had paid €2.25 billion to Germany in order to pre-finance its national recovery plan under the Next Generation EU Recovery Plan.
This is 9% of the total German plan, which will receive €25.6 billion in EU aid in the form of grants only (see EUROPE 12707/17). According to the European Commission, this threshold is the result of a German request: each country is entitled to pre-financing that is equivalent to 13% of the overall allocation of its national plan.
By this stage, the Commission has paid out €48.5 billion in pre-financing to assist the recovery plans of nine Member States: 24.9 billion to Italy, 9 billion to Spain, 5.1 billion to France, 4 billion to Greece, 2.2 billion to Portugal, 770 million to Belgium, 289 million to Lithuania, and 12.1 million to Luxembourg (see EUROPE 12774/5).
The EU Council has formally adopted the recovery plans of 16 Member States. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)