Brussels, 1 September 2023
Yesterday, Poland 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 contains new investments aiming at the development of electricity distribution networks in rural areas, supporting institutions implementing the REPowerEU measures, and developing gas infrastructure to enable diversification of supply in the interest of the Union as a whole. In addition, five investments were transferred from the initial plan to the REPowerEU chapter, three of which have been scaled-up. These concern support for electricity transmission networks, renewable energy sources, energy storage, low- and zero-emission buses, and offshore wind farms. The chapter also includes new proposed reforms concerning energy communities, regulatory aspects linked to the distribution network and measures to facilitate the deployment of technologies for the energy transition and to decrease imports of natural gas from Russia.
Poland’s request to modify its plan is based on the need to factor in high inflation experienced in 2022 and 2023, as well as the impossibility to deliver certain measures within the originally envisaged timeline due to objective circumstances. The request also reflects the downward revision of Poland’s maximum Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) grant allocation, from €23.9 billion to €22.5 billion. The revision is part of the June 2022 update to the RRF grants allocation key and reflects Poland’s comparatively better economic outcome in 2020 and 2021 than initially foreseen.
Poland has requested additional €23 billion in loans to finance its revised plan, which come on top of the €11.5 billion in loans already committed under the original plan. Together with the RRF and REPowerEU grants allocation (€22.5 billion and €2.76 billion, respectively), these funds make the submitted modified plan worth almost €60 billion.
The Commission will now 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 Polish 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