On Tuesday, February 9, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has submitted the draft Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) plan for Latvia for the review to the European Commission. Each and every interested person is also invited to provide their opinion and comments within the commenced public discussion regarding the draft RRF plan.
Advisor to the Minister for Finance Ints Dālderis emphasises: "An intensive work has been put into the preparation of the draft Recovery and Resilience Facility plan, in cooperation with the sectoral policy makers and partners. Now it is time to take the next step - to clarify the opinion of the European Commission and the public opinion regarding the reforms and investments contemplated by the plan, considering that the RRF would provide us with broad possibilities to support the already launched structural reforms and, primarily, to invest into a green and digital economy transformation."
The RRF is a new budget programme under the centralised management of the EC, established in addition to the EU multiannual budget for the programming period of 2021 - 2027. The draft RRF plan has been prepared in accordance with the objectives of the National Development Plan and the recommendations from the EC, observing the recommendations set by the European Union (EU) Council for sound and successful growth of Latvia.
Following the receipt of the opinion from the EC and the results of the public discussion, the draft plan will be enhanced in cooperation with the social and cooperation partners. Implementation conditions for particular investment projects will be developed after the particular planned investment measures would be approved by the Cabinet. In accordance with the conditions of the RRF Regulation, the final version of the RRF plan is to be submitted for approval to the European Commission and the EU Council by 30 April 2021, at the latest. The RRF funds might be available for Latvia in the second half of this year.
The draft RRF plan is available for review for each and every interested person on the MoF website and the EU funds website (in Latvian). Comments and proposals regarding the draft RRF plan and appendices thereto can be submitted in an electronic form by March 9 this year, by sending them to the e-mail address: rrf@fm.gov.lv.
To prevent the harm caused by COVID-19 pandemic to economy and social field, stimulate the recovery of Europe, as well as to protect and create jobs, in Spring this year, the EC proposed to introduce a large-scale European recovery plan. A significant part of the European recovery funding has been allocated to the RRF. The purpose of the facility is to support reforms and investments, specifically those related to the transition to a green and digital economy, as well as to reduce the social and economic impact caused by the crisis. The creation of the EU support facility of such scale within such a comparatively short timeframe is unprecedented. At the end of 2020, the EU legislators reached a conceptual agreement regarding the RRF regulation, which is expected to be approved in the European Parliament at the beginning of February this year.
The work on introduction of the RRF is being organised in six directions - climate change and sustainability, digital transformation, transformation of economy and productivity reform, health, reducing inequality and the rule of law. Following the EC recommendations, 20% of the RRF funds are planned to be allocated to digitisation and 37% - for achieving climate objectives. It is planned to allocate EUR 330 million (20% of the RRF funds) for reducing inequality, EUR 181.5 million (11%) - to the health sector projects, EUR 165 million (10%) - to transformation of economy and productivity reforms, and EUR 33 million (2%) - for strengthening the rule of law. The guaranteed available funding for Latvia comprises EUR 1.65 billion; therewith, for the time being, the RRF plan has been prepared within the scope of this amount.
