Economy and Finance ministers welcomed yesterday, 6 September, the assessment of Czechia’s and Ireland’s Recovery and Resilience Plans (RRP) during an informal video conference organized by the Slovenian Presidency. These plans focus on the key objectives of the EU (the climate and digital transition) and will provide respectively €989 million to Ireland and €7 billion to Czechia from the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility. The implementing decision on the formal approval of both plans by the Council will be taken by written procedure in the coming days.

The adoption of the decisions will allow both countries to start implementing reforms and investments outlined in their national plans. It also permits Czechia to sign a grant agreement with the Commission and receive 13% of its grants as pre-financing (as was already the case for 10 member states in the past weeks). Ireland did not make such a request and will therefore receive the first payment at a later stage.

With the adoption of these two plans, the proposals by 18 member states have now been validated, while work on the remaining national plans will continue into the autumn. Commission Vice-President Vladis Dombrovskis declared on Monday that the European Commission is still looking into the RRP proposed by Hungary and Poland, citing concerns over the rule of law as the reason for the delay in their approval. Additionally, the Netherlands and Bulgaria are the only countries that still need to submit their proposals due to delays in forming a new government.

Economy and Finance ministers will further discuss Europe’s economic recovery during an informal meeting organized in Kranj (Slovenia) on September 10.

Image © European Commission, 2021