The Council of the European Union has received formal notifications about the approval of the own resources decision from all 27 EU Member States. Now national ratifications being completed, the EU can now start making available funds under the Recovery and Resilience Facility. With a financial envelope of 672.5 billion euro, the facility is the central part of Next Generation EU, the EU instrument for economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
After adopting the own resources decision on 14 December 2020, the EU Council completed the list of received formal notifications on 31 May 2021. For the decision to enter into force, member states had to approve it in line with their constitutional requirements.
The completion of the ratification process allows the EU to start borrowing funds on the capital markets already in June 2021. Pre-financing of 13 per cent of the total amount allocated to each member state will be made available to national governments after the approval of their recovery and resilience plans.
Once the national governments submit their plans, it is for the European Commission to assess them within two months. The Council has then four weeks to approve each plan by means of an implementing decision. The rest of the funds will be disbursed taking into account the achievement of the milestones and targets set in the national recovery and resilience plans.
