Recovery and Resilience Facility

The Recovery and Resilience Facility is the key instrument at the heart of NextGenerationEU to help the EU emerge stronger and more resilient from the current crisis.

The Recovery and Resilience Facility

As part of a wide-ranging response, the aim of the Recovery and Resilience Facility is to mitigate the economic and social impact of the coronavirus pandemic and make European economies and societies more sustainable, resilient and better prepared for the challenges and opportunities of the green and digital transitions.

Readying Europe for the future – the Recovery and Resilience Facility

The Facility is a temporary recovery instrument. It allows the Commission to raise funds to help Member States implement reforms and investments that are in line with the EU’s priorities and that address the challenges identified in country-specific recommendations under the European Semester framework of economic and social policy coordination. It makes available €723.8 billion (in current prices) in loans (€385.8 billion) and grants (€338 billion) for that purpose.

The RRF helps the EU achieve its target of climate neutrality by 2050 and sets Europe on a path of digital transition, creating jobs and spurring growth in the process.

"Twin transitions: climate neutrality and digital transitions" twin transtion

The visual shows that Member States have allocated almost 40% of the spending in their plans to climate measures and more than 26% on the digital transition across the 22 recovery and resilience plans approved so far. This exceeds the agreed targets of 37% for climate and 20% for digital spending.

Joint, coordinated action at the European level is more effective and benefits Member States more than individual national expenditures, not least due to significant spillover effects across countries.

The effects of NextGenerationEU on the EU’s real GDP (until 2024 in a high productivity scenario)

The effects of NextGenerationEU to the EU’s real GDP

"Quantifying Spillovers of Next Generation EU Investment, Discussion Paper July 2021."

The Facility is structured around six pillars: green transition; digital transformation; economic cohesion, productivity and competitiveness; social and territorial cohesion; health, economic, social and institutional resilience; policies for the next generation.

"Six pillars of the Recovery and Resilience Facility”

Six pillars of the Recovery and Resilience Facility

Scoreboard

The Recovery and Resilience Scoreboard displays EU countries’ progress in implementing their recovery and resilience plans and shows common indicators to report on progress and evaluate the Recovery and Resilience Facility and the national plans.

How does it work?

The RRF entered into force on 19 February 2021. It finances reforms and investments in Member States from the start of the pandemic in February 2020 until 31 December 2026. To finance NextGenerationEU, the European Commission, on behalf of the EU, will borrow on the capital markets.

To benefit from the support of the Facility, Member States submit their recovery and resilience plans to the European Commission. Each plan sets out the reforms and investments to be implemented by end-2026 and Member States can receive financing up to a previously agreed allocation.

Each plan should effectively address challenges identified in the European Semester, particularly the country-specific recommendations of 2019 and 2020 adopted by the Council. It should also advance the green and digital transitions and make Member States’ economies and societies more resilient.

The Recovery and Resilience Facility is performance based. Fulfilment of agreed milestones and targets towards achieving the reforms and investments in the plans will unlock regular payment.

"From plans to implementation. The Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) – How does it work?"

FROM PLANS TO IMPLEMENTATION

Questions and answers on the Recovery and Resilience Facility

National recovery and resilience plans

The flags below will guide you to the Member State section. The links contain all relevant country-specific information, such as the recovery and resilience plans and key points about them, and where available, the legal texts approving the plan and accompanying press material.

Netherlands*

*The Netherlands has not submitted a recovery and resilience plan so far.

The Recovery and Resilience Task Force

In August 2020, the European Commission established the Recovery and Resilience Task Force (RECOVER) within its Secretariat-General. Jointly with the Commission’s Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs, RECOVER is responsible for steering the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility RECOVER also coordinates the European Semester and reports to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.