Council approves conclusions on the mid-term evaluation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility

The Council today approved conclusions on the mid-term evaluation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).

In its conclusions the Council recognises the positive contribution of the RRF to the green and digital transitions and other EU priorities, and notes the incentive to implement the country-specific recommendations (CSRs), notably through an acceleration of structural reforms.

The Council welcomes that the RRF aims at strengthening national ownership and that the focus of the instrument is on delivery and implementation.

The Council agrees that the report comes too early to be able to deliver a fully-fledged impact evaluation of the RRF and looks forward to the final evaluation of the RRF, scheduled in 2028, to assess its full impact. 

The Council invites the Commission and the member states to identify concrete ways to streamline and improve the implementation of the facility and the recovery and resilience plans, while ensuring the adequate protection of the financial interests of the Union.

The Council invites the Commission to continue to draw lessons from the implementation of the performance-based nature of this instrument.

It underlines that the swift completion of investments and reforms by August 2026 remains key for achieving the full implementation of the facility. 

Background

The Commission presented a mid-term evaluation of the RRF on 21 February 2024, taking stock of progress achieved in implementing the facility. The mid-term evaluation is a requirement under the RRF Regulation and will be followed by an 'ex post evaluation' in 2028, with a global assessment of the facility and its impact, once the measures included in the recovery plans are fully implemented.

The recovery and resilience facility (RRF) is the EU’s programme of large-scale financial support in response to the challenges the pandemic has posed to the European economy. It is the centrepiece of NextGenerationEU, a temporary recovery instrument that allows the Commission to raise funds to help repair the immediate economic and social damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

To benefit from the facility, member states have submitted recovery and resilience plans (RRPs) to the Commission, setting out the reforms and investments they intend to implement by the end of 2026. So far, €648 billion have been committed to this end.