Estonia's National Recovery and Resilience Plan: Latest state of play

Estonia's National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) – one of the last NRRPs submitted to the European Commission – sets out the reforms and public investment projects Estonia intends to implement with the support of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). The RRF is one of the main components of Next Generation EU, an EU instrument to counter the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Estonia's plan is one of the smallest in the EU in terms of the total amount allocated. However, when taking into account its number of inhabitants, the country is a medium-sized beneficiary. Initially, Estonia requested €982.5 million in grants but in the modified version, submitted to the European Commission in March 2023, Estonia reduced this amount to €953.3 million (-1.7 % compared with the original plan). The modified plan takes into account the updated maximum financial contribution published on 30 June 2022 (€863.5 million, down from €969.3 million) which reflects changes in real gross domestic product (GDP) over time. Furthermore, it includes a REPowerEU chapter to reinforce the plan's energy dimension. Estonia's modified plan represents 0.1 % of the entire RRF, equal to 3.4 % of the country's GDP in 2019 (the RRF being 5.2 % of EU-27 GDP in 2019). Estonia did not request any RRF loans. The Council approved Estonia's initial plan on 25 October 2021 and the modified plan on 16 June 2023. The European Commission disbursed €126 million (13.2 % of the resources of the revised plan) in pre-financing on 17 December 2021. The next payments, in seven instalments, will depend on progress in implementing the investments and reforms. On 9 March 2023, Estonia also requested the pre-financing of 20 % to fund the REPowerEU chapter. The European Parliament, which was a great supporter of the creation of a common EU recovery instrument, participates in interinstitutional cooperation and discussions on its implementation, and scrutinises the European Commission's work. This briefing is one in a series covering all EU Member States. Second edition. The 'Monitoring EU recovery' briefings are updated at key stages throughout the lifecycle of the plans.