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LUXEMBOURG – In exchange for money from the fund, countries promised reforms and investments for the benefit of the business climate. The watchdog of European finances sees that this has not yet yielded sufficient results.
After the significant economic damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns, the EU came up with a fund that provided member states with 650 billion euros in loans and subsidies to assist with, for example, digitalization and greening. To qualify for the money, EU countries had to draw up plans with specific objectives.
Even before the coronavirus pandemic, the EU had made dozens of recommendations to member states to improve their business climate, such as improving access to financing, simplifying tax systems, and reducing regulatory burdens. In their national recovery plans, all member states included a total of over four hundred reforms and investments related to these recommendations. The costs of those measures amount to approximately 109 billion euros.
Only a small portion of those reforms has yielded results, states the ERK. The majority of the reforms have been delayed, and most of the results are still pending, according to ERK member Ivana Maletić. “With the fund, it should have become easier to do business, but its potential is not being fully utilized.”
Earlier this year, the ERK released a critical report on the European coronavirus recovery fund. In it, the audit office stated that it was still very much in question whether member states delivered promised performances in exchange for the money. There were also risks of unequal treatment of different member states. Additionally, the ERK anticipated that the costs for the coronavirus recovery fund, officially called the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), would increase.
(October 27, 2025)