Search
Slovakia's National Recovery and Resilience Plan: Latest state of play
Slovakia is set to receive €6 408.5 million, solely in grants, to implement its national recovery and resilience plan (NRRP, Plán obnovy), representing 6.8 % of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019. On 13 May 2025, the Council approved Slovakia's amended NRRP addressing technical and procurement challenges, introducing new reforms and investments, and adjusting timelines. The updated plan reduced its green investment ambition by 4.6 percentage points (pps), but reinforced its digital ...
Spain's National Recovery and Resilience Plan: Latest state of play
Spain's national recovery and resilience plan (NRRP) is the second largest (in absolute figures) financed by the Next Generation EU (NGEU) recovery instrument and its main spending tool, the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). Following the October 2023 amendment of the Spanish NRRP, adding a REPowerEU chapter, the plan's value reached €163 billion (or 13.1 % of national gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019), an increase of roughly 135 % compared with the original plan of 2021 (€69.5 billion ...
How have European banks developed along different dimensions of international competitiveness?
This paper provides an assessment of the EU banks’ competitiveness by using the US as a benchmark and looking at four interconnected dimensions: profitability, stability, ability to supply intermediation services and raise funds, product affordability for customers. Our results show that profitability, while being a key performance indicator in a market economy, does not measure the banks’ contribution to welfare more broadly and may even signal excessive market power.
Invest EU Programme: functioning, performance and future challenges
InvestEU is the European Union’s flagship investment programme aimed at mobilising public and private financing to support sustainable infrastructure, innovation, SMEs, and social investment across the EU. As of June 2024, it has successfully mobilized around EUR 280 billion in investments using a EUR 26.2 billion guarantee, but faces concerns over guarantee depletion, excessive burdens and lack of transparency. The European Parliament plays a crucial oversight role, particularly in ensuring accountability ...
Sweden's National Recovery and Resilience Plan: Latest state of play
Sweden's national recovery and resilience plan (NRRP) is financed by the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). The NRRP's total volume increased from an initial €3 289 million to €3 502 million in the revised version. The total amount of funds under the RRF was revised in June 2022, which reduced the final amount allocated to Sweden to €3 181 million. Adding to this its REPowerEU grant allocation of €198 million and the requested transfer of €66 million of its share of the Brexit Adjustment ...
Greece's National Recovery and Resilience Plan: Latest state of play
Greece was among the first four EU Member States to submit its national recovery and resilience plan (NRRP) in April 2021. Since then, Greece has modified its plan in December 2023, adding a REPowerEU chapter and expanding its loan programme, and in July and December 2024, introducing smaller targeted revisions. The Greek plan now envisages investment and reforms worth €35.9 billion, to be implemented up to 2026; €18.2 billion will be financed from non-repayable financial support (grants), while ...
Cuts in US development assistance
On 20 January 2025, President Trump halted all US foreign aid pending a review. By 10 March, 83 % of USAID programmes had been terminated, creating a US$60 billion funding gap that neither Team Europe – the EU and its Member States collectively – nor other donors can fill, amid declining global official development assistance (ODA). This infographic uses OECD Development Assistant Committee (DAC) data on 2023 ODA commitments and disbursements. Commitments are pledged funds reflecting donor priorities ...
The emergence of EU defence ETFs
The European Union's defence industry requires a major increase in private investment due to the evolving geopolitical landscape. The emergence of new EU defence exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that hold shares in the underlying companies could encourage this investment and provide EU defence firms with dearly needed capital.
Germany's National Recovery and Resilience Plan: Latest state of play
Germany was originally entitled to a maximum financial contribution of €25.6 billion in grants from the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the unprecedented EU response to the crisis triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. The national recovery and resilience plan (NRRP) for Germany does not include requests for loans. Following the latest amendment of the German NRRP in July 2024, which added a REPowerEU chapter, the EU resources devoted to the plan reached €30.3 billion. This amount corresponds ...
Czechia's National Recovery and Resilience Plan: Latest state of play
Under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), Czechia's national recovery and resilience plan (NRRP) had an initial value of €7 036 million in grants only. In June 2022, its initial RRF grant allocation was revised upwards to €7 673.7 million (+ 9.1 %). In June 2023, Czechia submitted a request to modify its NRRP. The amended plan totals €9 231.3 million and now includes a REPowerEU chapter with an additional grant allocation of €680.5 million. Czechia also requested to transfer its remaining ...