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02.06.2020

EU RECOVERY STRATEGY TO BOOST RENEWABLE ENERGIES AND “GREEN” TECHNOLOGIES

On May 27, 2020, the European Commission tabled its long-awaited “Recovery Strategy”. It’s two elements, a new EU Budget for 2021-27 and a new Recovery Fund, amount to €1.85tn of total investment.

The Strategy clearly enshrines the green transition as the main driver of economic recovery and as key to Europe’s future growth and prosperity. Within that the Strategy singles out wind energy as one of the ‘policy fundamentals of the recovery’.

Recovery Strategy includes creation of a new recovery instrument, a €750 billion Next Generation EU Fund. The money raised for Next Generation EU will be invested across three pillars:

1. Support to Member States with investments and reforms:

A new Recovery and Resilience Facility of €560 billion will offer financial support for investments and reforms, including in relation to the green and digital transitions and the resilience of national economies, linking these to the EU priorities. Member States will have to design their own recovery plans, taking into account the priorities outlined in the 2030 National Energy & Climate Plans.

The instrument will comprise:

  1. €310 billion in grants
  2. €250 billion in loans.
  3. €190 billion in additional allocations under the EU budget (grants and loans), including a proposal to strengthen the Just Transition Fund up to €40 billion, to assist Member States in accelerating the transition towards climate neutrality and to help regions address the socio-economic impacts of the transition towards a climate-neutral economy by facilitating investments.

2. Kick-starting the EU economy by incentivising private investments:

Upgrade InvestEU, Europe's flagship investment programme, to a level of €15.3 billion to mobilise private investment in projects across the Union. A new Strategic Investment Facility built into InvestEU– to generate investments of up to €150 billion in boosting the resilience of strategic sectors, notably those linked to the green and digital transition, and key value chains in the internal market.

3. Addressing the lessons of the crisis:

An amount of €94.4 billion for Horizon Europe, which will be reinforced to fund vital research in health, resilience and the green and digital transitions.

Next Generation EU will be funded by European Commission borrowing on financial markets and guaranteed by Member States in line with their budget contribution keys. Next Generation EU has been tabled at the same time as a new proposal for the next EU budget for 2021-27 of €1,100 billion. This is around 10% greater than the budget for 2013-2020 in nominal terms.

WindEurope expressed its support to the EU “Recovery Strategy” and underlined its readiness to work closely with the European Investment Bank and European Commission on the details of implementation: “Excellent proposals from the EU Commission on the “Recovery Strategy”. The big bazooka the EU economy requires. And the right sort of investments. It’s clearly going to be a green recovery. And a boost for the energy transition. The Strategy singles out wind energy as “one of the policy fundamentals of the recovery”. The EU wants wind to be half of Europe’s electricity by 2050. That means huge investments, jobs and growth. Wind is ready to deliver. We look forward to the detailed proposals that’ll help make these investments happen” - says WindEurope CEO Giles Dickson in a first reaction to the Recovery Strategy.

More information on the website of European Commission: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_940