How to spend it? A closer look at the recovery plans

video and audio recordings

The majority of European Union countries submitted their national recovery and resilience plans to describe the reforms and public investment projects that they plan to implement with the support of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), which is the largest component of Next Generation EU (NGEU), the European Union’s landmark instrument for recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

The plans should describe how the proposed investments and reforms contribute to the main goals of RRF, which include green and digital transformations, smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, social and territorial cohesion, health and resilience, and policies for the next generation. The plans should also address the country specific recommendations made in the context of the European Semester.

The European Commission has two months from the date of submission of each plan to evaluate it. While we are waiting for the Commission’s verdict, this event aims to discuss the following key issues:

• How different are the priorities of EU countries as revealed by their submitted plans?
• Do the submitted plans offer the potential for a significant boost to green, digital and inclusive development?
• Are the plans additional to earlier (pre-pandemic) plans or just aim to use RRF money instead of national taxpayers' money to finance these expenditures?
• Are green spending plans really green or is there some ‘greenwashing’?
• How well do reform priorities address country-specific regulatory weaknesses?
• What economic impact to expect from the RRF?

Relevant Research:

Dataset on European Union countries’ recovery and resilience plans