Belgium, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) The European Commission gave preliminary approval for Slovenia’s payment request under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).
In a statement released on Wednesday, the EC noted that Slovenia has implemented 12 reforms required to gain access to the first RRF payment and submitted the request in October last year.
The reforms focus on digitalisation, the labour market and business climate, with the EC noting that they include incentives for the tourism sector, removal of bureaucratic obstacles to digitalisation projects and measures aimed at making public procurement more efficient, among other.
The EC pointed out that Slovenia presented comprehensive evidence that it fulfilled 12 milestones and stressed that it examined the information thoroughly before giving a positive preliminary assessment.
EC President Ursula von der Leyen congratulated Slovenia for implementing reforms, noting that “the country has improved conditions for businesses to go digital and for the tourism sector to become more sustainable.”
“Once member states give their greenlight, Slovenia will receive 50 million euro under NextGenerationEU,” she added and concluded “this is just the first disbursement.”
Green push in focus
Valdis Dombrovskis, European Commission for Trade, noted that the reforms Slovenia implemented put the country’s economy “on a greener, more digital path and will benefit its people and businesses as well.”
He stressed that Slovenia’s reforms will help it to strengthen the green push, improve the business environment and make public procurement more efficient, and concluded “one the Commission’s assessment is reviewed and approved by member states, Slovenia should receive 50 million euro in grants.”
Paolo Gentiloni, European Commissioner for Economy, stated “today’s assessment of Slovenia’s first payment request marks an important step in the roll-out of the country’s recovery and resilience plan.”
“In these uncertain times, delivering on the country’s reform and investment agenda is key for strengthening Slovenia’s economic resilience… to that end, it will be important to accelerate work on key reform commitments over the course of this year,” he concluded.
The EC reminded that the EU will support Slovenia’s recovery and resilience plan with 1.5 billion euro in grants, noting that the bloc already disbursed 231 million or 16% in pre-financing in 2021.