Council greenlights Luxembourg’s amended plan that includes a RepowerEU chapter

The Council approved the Commission’s positive assessment of Luxembourg’s amended recovery and resilience plan.

The amended plan, including a new REPowerEU chapter, is now worth €241.1 million in grants.

Luxembourg’s RepowerEU chapter will focus on the deployment of renewable energy, increasing energy efficiency, and sustainable transport.

The modified plan allocates 80% of available funds to measures that support climate objectives, up from 69% in the original plan. The digital ambition and social dimension of the plan are maintained.

Background

Luxembourg’s original national recovery and resilience plan was approved on 13 July 2021. On 16 May 2024, Luxembourg submitted an amended plan, including a REPowerEU chapter. The Commission adopted a proposal on the approval of the assessment of the recovery and resilience plan for Luxembourg on 23 July 2024.

The RRF is the EU’s large-scale financial support programme in response to the challenges the COVID-19 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 pandemic.

To benefit from the facility, member states must submit recovery and resilience plans (RRPs) to the Commission, setting out the reforms and investments they intend to implement by the end of 2026.

Regulation (EU) 2023/435 as regards REPowerEU chapters, in force since 1 March 2023, aims to end the EU’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels by saving energy, diversifying energy supplies and accelerating the clean energy transition.

Under the REpowerEU regulation, EU countries have added specific chapters to their national RRPs in order to finance key investments and reforms which will help achieve the REPowerEU objectives.

RepowerEU increases the RRF financial envelope by €20 billion in new grants. In addition, member states are able to voluntarily transfer up to €5.4 billion from the Brexit Adjustment Reserve to the RRF to finance REPowerEU measures. This comes on top of the existing transfer possibilities of 5% from the cohesion policy funds (up to €17.9 billion).

So far, €648 billion have been committed to this end. To date, all RRPs have been approved, 68 payment requests have been received and €265 billion have been disbursed.