Commission endorses preliminary assessment of Belgium's first payment request under the Recovery and Resilience Facility

Commission assessment of Belgium's first payment request

Today, the Commission endorsed a positive preliminary assessment of 19 out of the 20 milestones and targets linked to Belgium's first payment request for €658 million (net of pre-financing) under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the centrepiece of NextGenerationEU.

At the same time, the Commission concluded that one milestone related to the pension reform included in the payment request, which Belgium submitted on 20 September 2023, has not been satisfactorily fulfilled.

Positive preliminary assessment of all but one milestone

The payment request covers important steps in the delivery of nine reforms and seven investments that will drive positive change for citizens and businesses in Belgium in the areas of digitalisation, clean mobility, education, adult learning, employment, and public budget management.

Flagship measures in this payment request include:

• A reform to accelerate the roll-out of 5G and fibre networks: Belgium adopted the first steps of a larger reform aiming to remove bottlenecks for the deployment of new high-speed connectivity infrastructure in Belgium. These first steps have already allowed Belgium to significantly improve its 5G coverage of households across Belgium to 30% in 2022 (up from 4% in 2021).

• Reforms and investments promoting clean mobility across the country: Several milestones and targets in the first payment request support the transition to electric vehicles. This includes measures to accelerate the deployment of charging infrastructure for electric vehicles across Belgium: a federal tax incentive and a legal framework for Flanders were adopted to collectively support the installation of 65,000 private, public and semi-public charging stations. Furthermore, the federal government has revised the preferential tax scheme for company cars, which from 2026 onwards will only be open to new cars emitting zero CO2. The federal ‘mobility budget' has also been amended and now promotes alternatives to company cars for employees.

Activation of suspension procedure

The Commission found that one milestone related to the pension reform (milestone 157) has not yet been satisfactorily fulfilled. This milestone requires Belgium to submit a pension reform proposal for approval by the federal government, notably to improve the financial and social sustainability of the pension system. The Commission found that the reform does not yet meet all the requirements set out in the Council Implementing Decision.

The Commission is therefore activating the so-called ‘payment suspension' procedure, laid out in Article 24(6) of the RRF Regulation. This procedure gives Member States one month to submit observations, and six additional months to fulfil the outstanding milestone, while enabling them to receive a payment linked to the milestones and targets that have been satisfactorily completed.

Next steps

The Commission has now sent its positive preliminary assessment of the milestones and targets that it considers satisfactorily fulfilled to the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC), which has four weeks to deliver its opinion.

In parallel, the Commission has communicated to Belgium the reasons why it considers the milestone on the pension reform is not satisfactorily fulfilled. Belgium now has one month to submit its observations to the Commission.

Following the EFC's opinion on the positive preliminary assessment and after assessing the observations submitted by Belgium, the Commission will adopt a payment decision, after which the payment to Belgium can take place.

Should the Commission, following Belgium's observations, confirm its assessment that the milestone on the pension reform has not been satisfactorily fulfilled, it will suspend part of the payment. The suspended amount is determined by applying the Commission's methodology for payment suspensions (outlined in Annex II of the Communication published on 21 February 2023), which applies to all Member States.

From that moment, Belgium will have a period of six months to fulfil the outstanding milestone. At the end of this period, the Commission will assess whether the milestone has been satisfactorily fulfilled. If so, it will lift the suspension and proceed with the payment of the suspended amount.

Background

The Belgian recovery and resilience plan includes a wide range of reforms and investments. The plan will be financed by €5 billion in grants and €264 million in loans.

Belgium has already received 17% of the funds in the Belgian plan (€770 million in pre-financing in August 2021, as well as €145 million in pre-financing under REPowerEU in January 2024).

More information on the Belgian plan, including a map of projects financed by the Recovery and Resilience Facility in Belgium is available here.

For more information

Commission's preliminary assessment of Belgium's first payment request

Belgium's Recovery and Resilience plan

Recovery and Resilience Facility

Recovery and Resilience Facility project map

Recovery and Resilience Scoreboard

Recovery and Resilience Facility Regulation

EU as a borrower