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Data extracted in November 2024

Planned article update: 21 May 2025

Highlights

By the end of 2023, the EU countries' accrual expenditure and other costs amounted to a third of the total Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) grant allocation.

Over the same period, the European Commission had disbursed 39% of the RRF grant envelope.

From 2020 to 2023, in 5 countries accrual expenditure and other costs incurred have constituted more than half of their Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) grant allocation. Conversely, 4 countries have spent less than 10% of the envelope. Over that same period, 3 countries have received more than 50% of their grant allocation, while the European Commission has not disbursed any RRF grants to 4 EU countries (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) grants received and used over 2020-2023, in percentage of total grant allocation,
Source: Eurostat (gov_rrf_use) and (gov_rrf_fa)

This article presents statistics related to the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), an EU instrument to help countries recover after the Covid-19 pandemic. The data published by Eurostat includes information reported by the EU countries on the financial flows disbursed by the European Commission as well as the costs [1] financed by RRF grants and RRF loans. The data presented here refer to the period 2020-2023 and do not reflect any RRF implementation undertaken in 2024.


What are RRF funds used for?

The Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) provides financial support to EU countries, both in grants and loans, to implement reforms and investments across different policy areas. Over 2020 to 2023, EU countries reported RRF-related use equivalent to 33% of the total RRF grant allocation [2], amounting to €120 billion. Gross fixed capital formation accounted for 18% of the reported use of RRF funds, while more than half corresponded to capital transfers. Gross fixed capital formation expenditure refers to direct investments undertaken by general government. Capital transfers mainly cover investment grants, paid by general government to the units classified outside government to finance their investment. Current expenditure represented 27% of the use, and other costs the remaining 1% (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: Composition of the expenditure and other costs financed by Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) grants over 2020-2023, in percentage of total grant allocation,
Source: Eurostat (gov_rrf_use)

Moreover, €15 billion in RRF loans were disbursed to EU countries over 2020-2023, representing 5% of the total loan envelope. Over the same period, 65% of RRF-related costs supported by RRF loans corresponded to gross fixed capital formation. Capital transfers accounted for 17% of RRF loan use, while other costs, such as transfers to investment funds, amounted to 15% of RRF cost. The remaining 3% financed current expenditure (see Figure 3).

Figure 3: Composition of the expenditure and other costs financed by Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) loans over 2020-2023, in percentage of total loan allocation,
Source: Eurostat (gov_rrf_use)

What is the financial position of the EU countries vis-à-vis the EU?

The RRF is a performance-based instrument where funds are disbursed following EU countries’ payment requests and the European Commission’s assessment of milestones and targets implementation. Hence, there is no link between the expenditure and costs incurred by EU countries and their receipts from the European Commission (EC). The net position between grants received and used in national accounts is recorded as other accounts payable/receivable (AF.89). At the end of 2023, 14 EU countries had declared RRF-related costs below the amount of grants received by this date (a payable position towards the EU), while 13 had incurred RRF costs above the RRF payments they had received (a receivable position against the EU).

Overall, by the end of 2023, EU countries had a payable position towards the European Union of €24 billion, corresponding to 6% of the total grant allocation (see Figure 4).

Figure 4: Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) grants received (-) and used (+), as well as the EU countries' net position (stock of other accounts receivable (+) or payable (-) (AF.89)) over 2020-2023, in percentage of grant allocation,
Source: Eurostat (gov_rrf_use) and (gov_rrf_fa)

Over 2020-2023, 8 EU countries out of the 9 that requested loans had reported RRF-related costs below the amounts of RRF loans they had received. At EU level, 27% of the loan envelope had been disbursed as at end-2023, while related costs incurred accounted for 5% of the total RRF loans committed (see Figure 5).

Figure 5: Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) loans received (-) and used (+), as well as the EU countries' net position over 2020-2023, in percentage of loan allocation,
Source: Eurostat (gov_rrf_use) and (gov_rrf_fa)


Source data for tables and graphs

Data sources

The dataset “RRF financial flows” (gov_rrf_fa) shows the grants and loans received by Member States in cash, as well as other accounts receivable/ payable towards the EU. The dataset “RRF uses” (gov_rrf_use) shows statistical data of Member States' expenditure and other costs that are financed by RRF. The total uses are broken down into current expenditure, capital expenditure and other costs.

The data covers the period from 2020 to 2023 for all EU Member States. Only Member States that included loans in their national Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) appear in the series dedicated to Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) funds financed by loans. By the end of 2023, Greece, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Portugal, Romania and Slovenia were the only EU countries to have incurred cost supported by RRF loans. Moreover, the revised RRPs in Belgium, Czechia, Spain, Lithuania, Hungary and Poland also contain loans, but no cost supported by RRF loans was incurred in these EU countries over 2020-2023.

The EU countries' RRF grant and loan envelopes are available on the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) Scoreboard. The total financial envelope of the RRF as at mid-October 2024 stood at €650 billion. This breaks down into €359 billion in grants and €291 billion in loans. With the amended RRF Regulation, additional grants under the Emissions Trading System (ETS) and Brexit Adjustment Reserve (BAR) have been made available to EU countries. Therefore, the €359 billion in grants is now split into €338 billion of original RRF grants, €19 billion in ETS grants and €2 billion in BAR grants (more information can be found in the Update of the maximum financial contribution and in the Guidance on Recovery and Resilience Plans in the context of REPowerEU). Furthermore, EU countries could request loan support until August 2023. Of the total available envelope of €385 billion, €291 billion has been committed as at mid-October 2024, as reported on the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) Scoreboard.


Context

The Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) is a temporary instrument that is the centrepiece of the NextGeneration EU package, the EU’s 2020 plan to support the recovery in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic and make the EU’s economies and societies more resilient and sustainable. To this end, financial support is provided to EU countries, both in grants and loans, to implement reforms and investments across different policy areas. To finance this Facility, the Commission issues bonds on behalf of the EU.

The Facility entered into force on 19 February 2021, while measures are eligible from February 2020 until 31 December 2026. The Recovery and Resilience Facility has a total allocation of €359 billion in grants and €291 billion in loans.

The RRF is a performance-based instrument where payments to the beneficiaries (the Member States) are made upon the satisfactory fulfilment of sets of milestones and targets. There are no specific costs or amounts that are attached to a given milestone or target, and the RRF disbursements are fully integrated and fungible into the Member State budget (they do not reimburse any specific expenditure, as opposed to cost-based EU funds). Payments are made upon achieving predefined milestones and targets, regardless of costs incurred. For example, if a milestone or target is not fulfilled, no payment or a partial payment is made, with no regards as to whether costs were incurred. This is notably true in the case of reforms, which generally do not entail costs.

The statistical recording of the RRF associated flows follows the principle of the EU flows neutrality. The accrued expenditure, made on behalf of the RRF, is matched (in time and in size) with an imputed revenue from the EU in the non-financial accounts, and the following settlement in cash is recorded as a financial transaction. In this setting, pre-financing on RRF grants are recorded as financial advances in the financial accounts, and later on gradually recognised as revenue following the expenditure incurred.

More information on the statistical recording of RRF associated flows can be found in the Eurostat Guidance note.

Notes

  1. ↑ The costs are equivalent to the use of Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) funds. It covers expenditure as well as other costs not accounted as expenditure in government finance statistics, such as the acquisition of financial assets.
  2. ↑ The Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) allocation is the financial envelope (in grants and in loans) indicated in the approved Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP). For more information on the RRF envelope, please refer to the data source section.

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Database
RRF uses (gov_rrf_use)
RRF financial flows (gov_rrf_fa)


Methodology


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