It is a pleasure to be back in this House for our 19th Recovery and Resilience Dialogue.
With little more than one year remaining until the August 2026 deadline, now is the moment to look ahead and focus minds on what must be done to bring the RRF to a successful conclusion.
Let me start by stressing that the RRF is already a success and has shown a very significant impact, delivering concrete benefits for citizens and businesses.
Let me mention some concrete examples.
The RRF is responsible for the installation of over 110,000 megawatts of renewable energy capacity, this is equivalent to almost 20% of the installed capacity of wind and solar energy in 2024.
It has saved 33.4 million megawatt-hours per year in primary energy consumption, this is more than Denmark's total annual electricity consumption.
It has provided 16.2 million additional dwellings with access to very high-capacity internet networks.
And it has sponsored education and training for 29 million people, helping them in job transitions and easing skill shortages.
On top of that, the benefits from each recovery and resilience plan extend well beyond national borders.
Given the deep economic integration of EU economies, spillover effects can, in some Member States, more than double the direct impact of each national recovery and resilience plan by 2030.
EU countries that are highly integrated in the Single Market benefit from the strongest spillover-to-GDP effects.
This is a clear example of how we can be more successful when we work together.
So, how do we build on this success and ensure that the RRF finishes strong?
As Raffaele already stressed, implementation delays have occurred, and Member States now need to accelerate their efforts to meet next year's deadlines.
As part of the European Semester Spring Package, the European Commission proposed country-specific recommendations to 15 Member States to accelerate implementation where two conditions are met.
First, where the economic impact of the plans is macro-critical, meaning that the plan represents more than 3% of GDP.
And second, where a significant share of the milestones and targets still needs to be completed.
So, the countres getting this country-specific recommendation are, I would say with particular urgency, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary, but also Italy, Croatia, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czechia, Cyprus and Poland.
For the 12 Member States with smaller plans, or where implementation is more advanced, the Commission recommended they continue to ensure effective implementation.
In addition to these recommendations, the Commission presented a Communication on 4 June providing an overview of the actions that Member States can take to ensure that their recovery plans are implemented in time and to the fullest possible extent.
Firstly, we are encouraging Member States to streamline their plans.
Secondly, we are providing them with a clear menu of options to amend their plans.
And thirdly, we are giving guidance to prepare the final payment requests in 2026.
So, let me go into more detail on each of these actions.
First, on streamlining plans.
We are urging Member States to review their recovery and resilience plans to retain only those measures that can be implemented – with full certainty – by August 31st, 2026.
We also invite Member States to work with us to simplify their plans.
The goal here is to facilitate implementation and the assessment of payment requests by reducing administrative burden, while making sure that the revised recovery and resilience plan continues to meet the assessment criteria of the RRF Regulation.
Member States are also invited to reconsider the inclusion of minor measures and intermediary steps, and to advance already achieved milestones and targets to payment requests in 2025.
These urgent tasks should be undertaken as soon as possible and, at the latest, by the end of this year.
There will be no time in 2026 to carry out such plan revisions, given the large number of milestones and targets to be assessed.
Then, on the second point, providing options that Member States can explore when revising their plans.
These include:
- scaling up successful measures where implementation is going well, including financial instruments that boost private investment;
- transferring funds to InvestEU, including for measures contributing to Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform,
- splitting RRF projects that can be continued with national or other EU funds, including cohesion funding,
- prioritising grants over loans,
- and cutting down oversubscribed plans, where the total estimated cost of measures goes beyond the RRF allocation.
Finally, RRF funds could be used to support capital injections in National Promotional Banks and Institutions, as well as to contribute to future European Defence Industry Programme or to EU programmes for satellite communications.
These alternatives could help the RRF deliver additional important benefits for common EU priorities, including in the areas of security and defence.
We are inviting the co-legislators to enable the possibility for RRF to do transfers for European Defence Inustry Programme in the context of the EDIP trilogues.
Other priorities, such as addressing the housing crisis or fostering industrial decarbonisation, could also see a boost through some of these alternative measures.
And the plans will still need to meet the green and digital targets set out in the RRF Regulation.
Moving now to preparations to facilitate the smooth processing of payment requests in 2026.
Our Communication also provides some guidance on preparations to ensure an effective and smooth assessment process.
Firstly, we encourage Member States to plan ahead and submit sufficiently complete payment requests in good time to limit issues arising during the assessment.
All the necessary evidence to demonstrate the satisfactory fulfilment of milestones and targets that are part of the last payment request will have to be provided by 30 September 2026.
Secondly, Member States should ensure that they allocate sufficient resources to process the submission of the last payment requests.
This is because, in most cases, the number of milestones and targets to be processed in 2026 will be considerably higher than in previous years.
So, the allocation of resources should reflect this.
Taking these common-sense steps will go a long way in helping to avoid any unnecessary last-minute pressures or disappointments.
Before concluding, let me also debrief you on the latest development on transparency, audits and control.
We continue to work with Member States so that they share the most reliable data on the 100 largest final recipients of RRF funds.
Last April, 24 Member States updated the data of their 100 largest final recipients, in line with Article 25 of the RRF Regulation.
The Commission's services have contacted those Member States that did not report, to ensure they do so without delay.
In addition, we convened the expert group on RRF implementation to discuss data collection and reporting requirements in the RRF Regulation with national authorities to identify best practices.
The Commission also conveyed to all Member States the request of the Chair of the CONT Committee for the names of the 100 largest final recipients, including contractors and subcontractors:
Six Member States, those being Greece, Cyprus, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia and Sweden, have decided to share this data while three Member States, the Netherlands, Czechia and Luxembourg, have indicated that it would exceed the reporting requirements set out in the RRF Regulation.
As regards the preparatory steps for the next budgetary discharge, the Director General of DG ECFIN signed the statement of assurance for the financial year 2024 on 28 May.
As with every year, the Commission is looking forward to this process, and will do its utmost to answer your questions and to closely follow up on the ensuing findings and recommendations.
Honourable Members, to conclude, we must not cease to emphasise that the RRF has already had a transformative impact.
However, we must also redouble our efforts to ensure the successful closure of the instrument in view of its 2026 deadlines.
And, as we embark into this final phase, our Communication of 4 June charts out a clear way forward.
With 442 days left for implementation, there is no time to lose, and we hope to count on your support in this endeavour.
