NextGenerationEU: Positive Preliminary Assessment of Slovenia's Recovery and Resilience Facility Payment Request

The European Commission has endorsed a positive preliminary assessment of Slovenia's first payment request for €50 million of grants under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the key instrument at the heart of NextGenerationEU. This is a significant milestone in Slovenia's recovery and resilience plan, which aims to implement reforms and investments to help the country recover from the economic and social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Slovenia's Payment Request and Achievements

On 20 October 2022, Slovenia submitted to the Commission a payment request based on the achievement of the 12 milestones selected in the Council Implementing Decision for the first instalment. These milestones cover a wide range of reforms, including:

• Enabling the digitalisation of enterprises
• Strengthening the governance for the digital transformation of the public administration
• Reforms of the labour market and of the business environment
• Incentives for the tourism sector
• Reductions in the administrative burden for citizens and businesses
• Measures to foster the digitalisation and efficiency of public procurement
• Setting up indicators for measuring the quality of long-term care services

With their request, the Slovenian authorities provided detailed and comprehensive evidence demonstrating the fulfilment of the 12 milestones. The Commission has thoroughly assessed this information before presenting its positive preliminary assessment of the payment request.

Slovenia's Recovery and Resilience Plan

The Slovenian recovery and resilience plan includes a wide range of reform measures in 16 thematic components, which are supported by €1.5 billion in grants. Slovenia has already received 16% of this amount (€231 million) in pre-financing on 17 September 2021.

Payments under the RRF are performance-based and contingent on Member States implementing the investments and reforms outlined in their respective recovery and resilience plans. This means that Slovenia's payment request was assessed based on its progress towards achieving the milestones set out in its recovery and resilience plan.

Conclusion

The positive preliminary assessment of Slovenia's payment request is a positive step towards its recovery and resilience goals. The RRF is a crucial instrument in supporting Member States in their recovery efforts, and the successful implementation of Slovenia's recovery and resilience plan will help the country emerge stronger from the pandemic.