The European Commission is in favour of a “targeted and adequately justified” review of national recovery plans under the NextGenerationEU Recovery Plan, said its Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis on the evening of Monday 12 September in an exchange in Strasbourg with the European Parliament’s Committees on Budgets and Economy and Finance.
According to Mr Dombrovskis, the national plans may be amended to take account of the change in the subsidy component of the allocations to Member States, which the Commission made in June (see EUROPE 12983/11).
European Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni said that for those Member States whose allocations have been increased, the revised plans should include new investments and reforms. For those countries whose allocations have been reduced, he advised them to maintain the projects initially planned and to consider with the Commission how to find new EU funds, in particular by making use of the ‘loan’ component of the European Recovery Plan and/or via “transfers of funds” from the cohesion policy.
Further amendments may be made to include a chapter in the national plans on the implementation of the REPowerEU strategy to accelerate the energy transition and reduce the EU’s dependence on Russian hydrocarbons (see EUROPE 12960/9).
To this end, the two European Commissioners called on MEPs and Member States to make rapid progress in the negotiations on the proposal revising the regulation establishing the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the budgetary instrument of NextGenerationEU.
The Czech Presidency of the EU Council aims to reach a political agreement in principle at the Ecofin Council on Tuesday 4 October. If so, after an interinstitutional agreement in trilogue, the legislative revision could enter into force “this year or early 2023”, Mr Dombrovskis said.
In the Council, discussions are focusing on the issue of “funding sources” and the allocation key for the additional resources from the ETS for allocating emission allowances, noted Mr Gentiloni. In the Parliament, discussions can now start after agreement on the division of competences between the relevant parliamentary committees.
With pre-financing payments made in 2021 and subsequent payment claims, the Commission has so far paid out almost €113 billion to Member States. Out of 27 recovery plans, only the Dutch (see EUROPE 13017/16) and Hungarian (see other news) plans have yet to be formally adopted. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)