Brussels (The Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Netherlands to receive 1.3 billion euros from European Commission’s coronavirus recovery fund.
The Netherlands will soon welcome the first payment of 1.3 billion euros from the European Recovery and Resilience Fund, which the Europan Union set up to help Member States with the economic recovery after the coronavirus pandemic. Netherlands’s Finance Minister Eelco Heinen reported this to the House of Representatives. Brussels has authorised the disbursement of the first of five tranches. Heinen believes that he will submit a second payment request for 1.2 billion euros by the end of this year. A sum of 5.4 billion euros is unrestricted for the Netherlands.
What are the conditions for EU fund disbursement?
To receive the full amount, the arrangements made with the European Commission must be fulfilled. A plan sets out precisely which investments the money from the fund will be utilised for and which reforms will be executed in return. The money will be disbursed on digitalization, affordable housing, education, and healthcare, among other things.
The money is connected to certain investments. For example, the EU member states must assign at least 37% of the budget to climate protection efforts and 20% to digital measures. The Recovery and Resilience Fund is performance-based. This suggests that the European Commission will only spend funds if a country has reached the approved milestones and targets for completing the reforms and investments in its plan.
How is the Netherlands meeting eu recovery milestones?
Following its examination of the payment request submitted on 24 May 2024, the Commission has preliminarily deduced that the Netherlands has satisfactorily satisfied the 25 milestones and 5 targets set out in the Council Implementing Decision for the first instalment, including the first landmark of the Netherlands’ REPowerEU chapter.
Sixteen reforms and eight investments will force positive change for citizens and businesses in the Netherlands in the dimensions of the green transition, digitalisation, as well as the labour market. The payment request covers significant reforms relating to the pension system, environmental taxation, the housing market, self-employment, digital transformation of the central government, assertive tax planning and the electricity grid code. The payment request also contains a set of investments in the areas of training and career advice for individuals in the Dutch labour market, rail traffic management, research and development of quantum technologies, digital equipment for students and e-health care for people living at home.
