Brussels, 12 March 2024
Today, the Commission has endorsed a positive preliminary assessment of Estonia’s second payment request for €122.3 (net of pre-financing) million under the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the centrepiece of NextGenerationEU.
Following its assessment of the payment request submitted by Estonia on 18 December 2023, the Commission has preliminarily concluded that Estonia has satisfactorily completed the 15 milestones and 3 targets set out in the Council Implementing Decision for the third instalment.
The payment request covers important steps in the delivery of 11 reforms and six investments that will drive positive change for citizens and businesses in Estonia in the areas of digitalisation, sustainable mobility, clean energy and energy efficiency, healthcare, long-term care, and social protection.
Flagship measures in this payment request include:
- Fuelling the digitalisation of public services: With this payment request, Estonia’s digital transition will be further fueled, bringing positive enhancements to the already established digital public and e-Government services. Estonia’s citizens and businesses will face less administrative burden when accessing digital public services. This payment request launches two key digital services that will allow for the digital registration of marriage and an array of digital services related to the birth of a child. Thanks to the Estonian plan, further upgrades to the IT systems that support the digital public and e-Government services have been implemented. This payment request improves the overall efficacy and reliability of the services for its users.
- Bolstering Estonia’s green transition: This payment request supports both the deployment and the piloting of hydrogen value chains, from green production to the consumption, that will further bolster Estonia’s green transition. Energy intensive industries such as transport and chemical will benefit from the increased production and supply of renewable, clean energy. The implementation of hydrogen technologies will allow for real progress to be made in the production and storage of clean energy, making Estonia more green and more sustainable. Estonia is making impactful changes with this payment request, with the entry into force of the ministerial decree on the conditions for granting support for projects related to integrated green hydrogen technologies. The projects already underway include the development of electrolyses, hydrogen filling stations and the purchasing of hydrogen vehicles.
Next steps
The Commission has now sent its preliminary assessment of Estonia’s fulfilment of the milestones and targets required for this payment to the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC), which has four weeks to deliver its opinion. The payment to Estonia can take place following the EFC’s opinion, and the adoption of a payment decision by the Commission.
Background
Estonia’s recovery and resilience plan includes a wide range of investment and reform measures (more information on the Estonian plan, including a map of projects financed by the Recovery and Resilience Facility in Estonia are available here). The plan will be financed by €953.5 million in grants. The payment request preliminary endorsed today follows Estonia’s first payment request from 30 June 2023, that was endorsed by the Commission on 20 October 2023 and paid out to Estonia on 6 November 2023.
This payment request will bring the funds paid out to Estonia under the Recovery and Resilience Facility to €504.8 million (including the €126 million in pre-financing it received in December 2021 and the €18 million pre-payment under REPowerEU it received in December 2023), which correspond to 53% of all the funds in Estonia’s plan, with 35% of all the milestones and targets in the plan fulfilled.
For more information
Commission’s preliminary assessment of Estonia’s second payment request
Estonia’s Recovery and Resilience plan:
Plan overview, full plan and all other related documents
Recovery and Resilience Facility
Recovery and Resilience Facility project map
Recovery and Resilience Scoreboard