EU Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni called on EU member states to summarise the changes of their recovery plans in a single amendment in order to speed up the approval process and the actual implementation.
“We strongly encourage member states to quickly present the various changes to their plans in a single amendment rather than adopting a piecemeal approach. In this way, we reduce the time spent on the processes and speed up the actual implementation”, Gentiloni said at the European Parliament’s Economy and Budget committee.
Gentiloni warned against “fragmentation” in the European Union’s approach. Rather, we need to “strengthen competitiveness” and “accelerate net-zero industrial transformation”.
The National Recovery and Resilience Plans of EU member states will be revised in light of war in Ukraine and the related energy crisis.
They will have until 30 April to submit changes.
The EU is responding to the US Inflation Reducation Act with more flexibility for state aid, the remaining funds of the Recovery Fund, and a European Sovereignty Fund, particularly wanted by some countries such as Italy.
The various components of the EU ‘Net-Zero’ Industrial Plan will not arrive at the same time, but Gentiloni guarantees that the EU will have a global approach that will combine national responses with common EU instruments.
“This will be crucial to protect the single market and ensure that we face this historic challenge together”, Gentiloni added.
The European Sovereign Wealth Fund will not be like the Next Generation EU, which will remain a “unique case”, but a joint effort of the EU states.
The total amount of funds disbursed so far by the EU to the member states in the framework of the implementation of the NRPs amounts to €142.3 billion, including pre-financing. This was reported by the Vice-President of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, during a hearing at the EU Parliament.
“2023 will be a decisive year for the recovery, because it represents the halfway point and we are counting on half of the project targets being met”, he noted.
In order to strengthen the NRPs in the light of the energy challenges €270 billion is still available, Dombrovskis reminded, pointing out that this includes inter alia € 20billion in RePowerEU grants and €225 billion in loans.
(Federica Pascale | EURACTIV.it)
Source: euractiv.com
