The Commission has today received an official recovery and resilience plan from Malta. This plan sets out the reforms and public investment projects that Malta plans to implement with the support of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).
The RRF is at the heart of NextGenerationEU which will provide €800 billion (in current prices) to support investments and reforms across the EU. It will play a crucial role in helping Europe to emerge stronger from the crisis and secure the green and digital transitions.
The presentation of the plan follows intensive dialogue between the Commission and the Maltese authorities over the past number of months.
Malta’s recovery and resilience plan
Malta has requested a total of €316.4 million in grants under the RRF. Projects in the plan cover the entire lifetime of the RRF until 2026. The plan proposes projects in five of the seven European flagship areas.
Parliamentary Secretary Zrinzo Azzopardi said that “Once the plan is approved, we have until 2025 to implement (it) and benefit from the €345 million investment”. Zrinzo Azzopardi outlined six areas on which the government based its considerations, including sustainable transport, circular economy, clean energy and energy-efficiency in buildings, digital transformation of the public administration and the legal system, projects targeting the health and education sectors, as well as institutional reforms.
Next steps
The Commission will now assess Malta’s plan based on the eleven criteria set out in the Regulation and translate their contents into legally binding acts. This assessment will notably include a review of whether the plans contribute to effectively addressing all or a significant subset of challenges identified in the relevant country-specific recommendations issued in the context of the European Semester. The Commission will also assess whether the plan dedicates at least 37% of expenditure to investments and reforms that support climate objectives, and 20% to the digital transition.
The Council will have, as a rule, four weeks to adopt the Commission proposal for a Council Implementing Decision.
The Commission has now received 25 recovery and resilience plans from Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Ireland, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, and Sweden. It will continue to engage intensively with the remaining Member States to help them deliver high quality plans.
