Undaunted by MEPs’ request for a partial extension of the NextGenerationEU Recovery Plan (see EUROPE 13644/23), the European Commission is urging Member States to speed up the implementation of their national post-Covid-19 recovery plans by the end of August 2026. On Wednesday 4 June, it presented them with several options to avoid losing the European funds allocated.
The European Commissioner for the Economy, Valdis Dombrovskis, has invited EU countries to examine their recovery plans before the end of 2025, retaining only those measures that they are certain to finalise before the deadline.
He also listed the following “options” to avoid losing European funds: - scaling up successful measures; - establishing financial instruments to boost private investment; - transferring funds to the national section of the InvestEU programme, including via the 'STEP' technology platform; - splitting the projects underway so that the part carried out after 2026 can be implemented with national or European funds, in particular European cohesion policy ; - supporting capital injections into National Promotional Banks (NPBs); - contributing to the future ‘EDIP’ programme aimed at developing the industrial base of the defence sector (if this possibility is included in the specific legislation).
On Tuesday, a European official put the probability of the European Recovery Plan being extended beyond 2026 at zero. By the end of August 2026, more than 4,800 milestones and targets in the national plans will have to be assessed, with the final payment from the Commission due by the end of December 2026.
See the Commission communication: https://aeur.eu/f/h6b (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)