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NextGenerationEU is a groundbreaking temporary recovery instrument to support Europe’s economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and build a greener, more digital and more resilient future.

Based on Member State requests for funding under the Recovery and Resilience Facility and the funding needs of other EU programmes supported by NextGenerationEU, the EU expects to raise up to €712 billion (out of a maximum programme envelope of €806.9 billion) by 2026.

Link to policy brief

Use of NextGenerationEU proceeds

The centrepiece of NextGenerationEU is the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) - an instrument that offers grants and loans to support reforms and investments in the EU Member States. RRF funds are being provided to Member States in line with their national Recovery and Resilience plans – the roadmaps to reforms and investments aimed to make EU economies greener, digital and more resilient.

Under the RRF, up to €338 billion of grants will be financed through borrowing operations. Member States will also receive additional RRF grants of €17.3 billion financed under the Emissions Trading System (ETS) and €1.6 billion under the Brexit Adjustment Reserve (BAR).

Borrowing operations will also finance RRF loans. Of the total available RRF loan envelope of €385 billion, close to €291 billion has been committed by end 2023, following Member States’ requests.

In addition, up to €83.1 billion of NextGenerationEU funds are being used to reinforce several existing EU programmes, such as the Just Transition Fund, Horizon Europe, InvestEU, RescEU and ReactEU.

Live updates on reforms Member States have implemented and the funds they have received is available on the Commission’s Recovery and Resilience Facility page and the Recovery and Resilience Scoreboard.

Have a look here for an overview of the projects financed via the Recovery and Resilience Facility across the EU Member States.

Repayment of the borrowing

Repayment of EU borrowing allocated to NextGenerationEU will start as of 2028 and will take place over a long-time horizon – until 2058.

The loans will be repaid by the borrowing Member States. The grants will be repaid by the EU budget.

To help repay the grant portion of the borrowing, the Commission has proposed additional own resources (or sources of revenue) to the EU budget in 2021.  On 20 June 2023, the Commission completed its proposal for a next generation of own resources. The Commission is working with the European Parliament and with the EU Member States in the Council towards a swift approval of the new sources of revenue.

More information about revenue to the EU budget

Guaranteeing of the borrowing

To back the borrowing, retain its high credit rating and raise funds under favourable market conditions, the EU uses the EU budget and its headroom.

The headroom is the difference between the own resources ceiling (i.e. the maximum amount of resources that the Commission can ask Member States to contribute in a given year) and the funds that it actually needs to cover the expenses foreseen by the budget. A sufficiently high ceiling allows the EU to cover all of its financial obligations and contingent liabilities falling due in a given year.

To ensure sufficient headroom for the borrowing to fund NextGenerationEU, the EU has increased the Permanent 1.4% Own Resources Ceiling of its budget by 0.6 percentage points of the EU's Gross National Income (GNI).

This increase is limited in time, until 2058, and is only used in the context of the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. This increase in the Own Resource ceiling will expire when all funds will have been repaid and all liabilities will have ceased to exist.

The EU budget headroom hence serves as a guarantee that the EU will be able to make repayments under any circumstances.

Own Resources

NextGenerationEU Green Bonds

The Commission is funding up to 30% of NextGenerationEU by issuing NextGenerationEU Green Bonds. This is expected to make the Commission the largest green bonds issuer in the world.

Read more about NextGenerationEU Green Bonds

Issuance and transactions data

Data about forthcoming EU issuances is available in the latest EU funding plan.

Data about executed EU issuance transactions is available here.

NextGenerationEU reporting

The Commission reports on the progress of the NextGenerationEU funding programme twice a year.

The reports published to date are available online below.

23 FEBRUARY 2024
Fifth half-yearly report on the execution of the EU borrowing and lending operations
English
(427.57 KB - PDF)
Download
28 JULY 2023
Fourth half-yearly report on the execution of the EU borrowing and lending operations
English
(541.28 KB - PDF)
Download
22 FEBRUARY 2023
Third half-yearly report on the execution of the EU borrowing and lending operations
English
(675.01 KB - PDF)
Download
8 JULY 2022
Second semi-annual report on the execution of NextGenerationEU funding operations
English
(638.17 KB - PDF)
Download
17 FEBRUARY 2022
Semi-annual report on the execution of NextGenerationEU funding operations
English
(631.38 KB - PDF)
Download

Documents

Legal documents linked to the NextGenerationEU programme and its elements is available online.