Brussels, 12 November 2024
Today, the Commission has endorsed a positive preliminary assessment of Lithuania’s third payment request for €463 million of which €175 million in grants and €288 in loans (net of prefinancing), under the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the centrepiece of NextGenerationEU.
Following its assessment of the payment request submitted on 16 September 2024, the Commission has preliminarily concluded that Lithuania has satisfactorily completed the 25 milestones and 3 targets set out in the Council Implementing Decision included in the second grant and second loan instalments.
20 reforms and 6 investments will drive positive change in the areas of electricity storage facilities, medical services, education programmes, renewable energy as well as the tax collection system.
Flagship measures in this payment request include:
- More efficient emergency care thanks to one Emergency Response Centre: Ambulance dispatch centres will be integrated into one Emergency Response Centre. This way, people will benefit from faster and more efficient emergency care assistance which complies with uniform standards. Working conditions for ambulance workers have also been improved.
- Less red tape for the deployment of renewable energy: Several reforms have simplified administrative requirements for the deployment of renewable energy. These include: (i) defining and regulating hybrid power plants, (ii) introducing a single development permit and a single manufacturing permit for hybrid power plants, (iii) waiving the need for development and generation allowances for prosumers and for new renewable energy sources (RES) power plants up to 100 kW, and (iv) limiting the duration of permitting granting procedures to one year for new RES power plants.
Next steps
The Commission has now sent its preliminary assessment of Lithuania’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 Lithuania can take place following the EFC’s opinion, and the adoption of a payment decision by the Commission.
Background
Lithuania’s recovery and resilience plan includes a wide range of investment and reform measures. The plan will be financed by €3.85 billion, of which €2.3 billion in grants and €1.55 billion in loans.
You can find more information on Lithuania’s Recovery and Resilience plan on this page, which features an interactive map of projects financed by the RRF, as well as on the Recovery and Resilience Scoreboard. More information on the process of payment requests under the RRF can be found in this document of questions and answers.
For more information
Commission’s preliminary assessment of Lithuania’s third payment request
- Lithuania’s recovery and resilience plan
- Recovery and Resilience Facility
- Recovery and Resilience Facility project map
- Recovery and Resilience Scoreboard
- Recovery and Resilience Facility Regulation
- EU as a borrower
Source – EU Commission