Brussels, 1 September 2023
Yesterday, Hungary submitted a request to the Commission to modify its recovery and resilience plan, to which it also wishes to add a REPowerEU chapter.
The REPowerEU chapter includes a wide range of reforms and investments aimed at decreasing the country’s dependency on Russian fossil fuels and at contributing to its green transition. It covers both reforms and new and scaled-up investments. The reforms include incentives to expand energy storage capacity and a commitment to substantially boost the country’s energy system’s ability to integrate renewables, to be mirrored by one of the chapter’s investments in supporting the electricity network development. The many other investments in the chapter also include the improvement of the energy efficiency of households, companies, and the public sector.
The proposed revision of the plan is justified by Hungary’s request of €3.9 billion in loans which, together with its REPowerEU grant allocation of €0.7 billion, will finance the newly added REPowerEU chapter. These funds, added to the €5.8 billion in grants already committed under the original plan, make the overall, modified plan worth €10.4 billion.
The Commission has now two months to assess whether the modified plan, including its new REPowerEU chapter, fulfils all the assessment criteria in the RRF Regulation. If the Commission’s assessment is positive, it will make a proposal for an amended Council Implementing Decision to reflect the changes to the Hungarian plan. Member States will then have up to four weeks to endorse the Commission’s assessment.
More information on the process concerning REPowerEU chapters and the revision of recovery and resilience plans can be found in this Q&A.
Source – EU Commission