Brussels, 9 November 2023
The Council today adopted implementing decisions approving the amended recovery and resilience plans of Denmark, Lithuania, Austria and Sweden.
The amended recovery and resilience plans now include a new REPowerEU chapter. This will contribute to accelerating the countries’ transition towards clean energy, diversifying their energy supplies and improving their energy efficiency.
To finance the increased ambition of their plans, Denmark, Lithuania and Sweden have requested to transfer their share of the Brexit Adjustment Reserve (BAR) to the plans, in line with the REPowerEU Regulation.
According to the analysis of the Commission, the modifications put forward by the member states do not affect the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and coherence of their recovery and resilience plans.
Denmark
On 31 May 2023, Denmark submitted its amended recovery and resilience plan, which includes a new REPowerEU chapter.
The total financial contribution available to Denmark will now be €1.63 billion in grants. Denmark has not requested loans.
The modified plan has a stronger focus on the green transition, devoting 69% (up from 59% in the original plan) of the available funds to measures that support climate objectives.
The plan remains ambitious in the digital sphere too, allocating 27% (up from 25% in the original plan) of its total allocation to support the digital transition.
Lithuania
On 30 June 2023, Lithuania submitted a modified national plan, including a REPowerEU chapter.
The modified plan has a strong focus on the green transition, devoting 37.4% of the available funds to measures that support climate objectives.
The plan is now worth €3.85 billion (€2.3 billion in grants and €1.55 billion in loans) which is nearly double the size of the initial recovery and resilience plan. Lithuania’s revised plan also reinforces its digital ambition and social dimension.
Austria
On 14 July 2023, Austria submitted a modified national plan, including a REPowerEU chapter.
The modified plan has a significant focus on the green transition, allocating 56% of available funds to measures that support climate objectives. The plan’s digital ambition and social dimension remain strong.
The plan will now benefit from €3.96 billion in grants.
Sweden
On 14 July 2023, Sweden submitted a modified recovery and resilience plan, including a new REPowerEU chapter.
The modified plan has a strong focus on the green transition, allocating 43.6% of available funds to measures that support climate objectives. The plan’s level of digital ambition increases slightly and its social dimension remains strong.
The EU contribution to the plan is now worth €3.45 billion in grants.
Background
The recovery and resilience facility (RRF) is the EU’s programme of large-scale financial support in response to the challenges the pandemic has posed to the European economy. It is the centrepiece of NextGenerationEU, a temporary recovery instrument that allows the Commission to raise funds to help repair the immediate economic and social damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
To benefit from the facility’s €724 billion (in current prices), member states submit recovery and resilience plans (RRPs) to the Commission, setting out the reforms and investments they intend to implement by the end of 2026.
To date, all RRPs have been approved, 39 payment requests have been received from 22 member states, and €174.7 billion have been disbursed.
Regulation 2023/241 as regards REPowerEU chapters, in force since 1 March 2023, increases the RRF financial envelope by €20 billion in new grants. In addition, member states are able to voluntarily transfer up to €5.4 billion from the Brexit Adjustment Reserve to the RRF to finance REPowerEU measures. This comes on top of the existing transfer possibilities of 5% from the cohesion policy funds (up to €17.9 billion).
During 2023, it is expected that gradually each of the 27 member states will submit amendments to their national recovery and resilience plans at least once, to access the new REPowerEU grants, to request available loans, or to take into account the updated RRF allocation.
- Council implementing decision amending the recovery and resilience plan for Denmark
- Council implementing decision amending the recovery and resilience plan for Lithuania
- Council implementing decision amending the recovery and resilience plan for Austria
- Council implementing decision amending the recovery and resilience plan for the Sweden
- A recovery plan for Europe (background information)
- REPowerEU: energy policy in EU countries’ recovery and resilience plans (background information)
Source – EU Council