Brussels, 20 April 2023
Today’s payment of €700 million in grants was made possible by Austria’s fulfilment of the 44 milestones and targets linked to the first instalment. The request covers transformative reforms such as the entry into force of a Renewable Expansion Law, which will accelerate the roll-out of renewable energy production, as well as a “Climate-Ticket” reform making public transport more attractive. Several targets concern the achievement of key steps in the roll-out of major investments. This includes investment in energy efficiency supporting Austrian families in replacing old gas and oil boilers in their houses with renewable heating systems, as well as in delivering digital devices to pupils in schools.
As for all Member States, payments under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the key instrument at the heart of NextGenerationEU, are performance-based and depend on the implementation by Austria of the investments and reforms described in its recovery and resilience plan.
On 22 December 2022, Austria submitted to the Commission a first request for payment of €700 million under the RRF covering 44 milestones and targets. On 10 March 2023, the Commission adopted a positive preliminary assessment of Austria’s request for payment. The favourable opinion of the Economic and Financial Committee of the Council on the payment request paved the way for the Commission to adopt a final decision on the disbursement of the funds.
The overall recovery and resilience plan of Austria will be financed by €3.75 billion in grants. The amounts of payments made to Member States are published on the Recovery and Resilience Scoreboard, which shows the progress made in the implementation of the RRF as a whole and of the individual recovery and resilience plans. Austria had already received a pre-financing payment of €450 million in September 2021.
More information on the RRF payment claim process can be found in this Q&A document. More information on the Recovery and Resilience Plan of Austria can be found here.
Source – EU Commission