Brussels, 18 September 2023
On Friday, Germany sent its first payment request under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) and submitted a request to modify its recovery and resilience plan.
Germany’s first payment request for €3.97 billion (net of pre-financing) relates to 28 milestones and 8 targets. They cover investments in areas such as electro-mobility and charging infrastructure, research in hydrogen and the rollout of hydrogen-related projects, support for microelectronics, the digitalisation of railways, the development of vaccines as well as support for childcare and apprenticeships. The payment request also covers reforms to promote the digitalisation and the efficiency of public administration as well as the acceleration of the planning and approval procedures in the transport sector.
Payments under the RRF are performance-based and contingent on Germany implementing the investments and reforms outlined in its recovery and resilience plan.
Germany’s proposed revised plan includes additional funding to scale up a scheme to support private purchases of electric vehicles as well as a programme subsidising the installation of charging infrastructure. Germany also proposes to include a new measure to provide funding support for green district heating networks. Under this investment, district heating systems will integrate renewable energy and waste heat.
Germany’s request to modify its recovery and resilient plan is based on the upward revision of its maximum RRF grant allocation, from €25.6 billion to €28 billion. The revision is part of the June 2022 update to the RRF grants allocation key.
The Commission will now assess Germany’s payment request and will then send its preliminary assessment of Germany’s fulfilment of the milestones and targets required for this payment to the Council’s Economic and Financial Committee. As regards Germany’s revised plan, the Commission has now up to two months to assess whether the modified plan still 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 German plan. Member States will then have up to four weeks to endorse the Commission’s assessment.
More information on the process of payment requests under the RRF and concerning the revision of recovery and resilience plans can be found online.
More information on the German recovery and resilience plan is available here.
Source – EU Commission