The EC will start approving national recovery plans from next week

Next week, the European Commission (EC) will approve the first national recovery and resilience plans funded through the next-generation EU multibillion-dollar program adopted to revitalize and modernize Europe's post-corona economy. This was announced on Tuesday by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in front of Members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. MEPs debated the need to oversee the assessment of national recovery and resilience plans - to be assessed by the European Commission and the EU Council. The result of their vote on this topic will be known on Thursday. "From next week, the European Commission will start approving the national plans so that they can be adopted by the EU Council. It is a historic success," Von der Leyen said in a plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. The leaders of the 27 EU member states agreed in July 2020 on a recovery plan in the form of grants and soft loans of 750 billion euros, which will be financed in a unique way through a joint loan on global financial markets. Between the end of April and the end of last week, 23 national investment and reform plans were submitted to the European Commission for approval. The EU executive has two months to decide on the final opinion to be issued by the EU Council representing the Member States. The Council will have one month to take a decision. The first payments, advances representing 13% of the pledges, are expected as early as July. Von der Leyen appreciated that EU members had agreed on the total amount of aid and also the speed of decision-making by the euro institutions due to the complicated approval process. "It took us less than a year between last year's July summit and the approval of the first plans," she said. According to her, the EU launched unprecedented financial assistance at a "record rate", stating that the post-coronary recovery plan is "Europe's largest economic recovery project since the adoption of the Marshall Plan". The extensive US financial assistance program adopted after World War II helped Europe rebuild the devastated continent.