The European Commission adopted respectively the day before yesterday and yesterday a positive assessment on the plans presented under the Recovery and Resilience Facility by Estonia and Finland. The plans have a respective budget of €969 million and €2.1 billion. Once the plans will be approved by the Council, both member states will be able to request the pre-financing (up to 13% of their respective budget) that will allow them to kick-start the reforms and investments planned to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and support the ambitions of the EU in terms of the digital and green transition.

Meanwhile, during the meeting of the Economy and Finance ministers yesterday in Luxembourg, the Council adopted the implementing decision on the approval of the recovery and resilience plan of Malta (€316.4 million). This will allow the Maltese government to request to the Commission the disbursement of the €41 million pre-financing, representing 13% of the country’s total allocation.

With these decisions, 22 member states have received the approval of the Commission. Bulgaria and the Netherlands haven’t submitted their plans yet due to difficulties in the formation of their respective governments, while the plans of Hungary, Poland, and Sweden are still waiting for approval, with delays for the first two related to rule of law concerns. Additionally, with the approval of the Maltese plan, 19 plans received the green light by the Council, and among them, 16 have already received the respective pre-financing.

Image © European Commission, 2021