The EU called on member states on Friday to "
speed up
" national ratifications of the mechanism to finance the massive post-Covid recovery plan, the first payments of which could come "
at the beginning of the summer
".
Main pillar of the “
Next Generation EU
”
recovery plan
, the “
recovery and resilience facility
” in the form of grants (312.5 billion euros) and loans (360 billion) was formally endorsed on Friday by the institutions Europeans after the final green light from MEPs on Wednesday.
The European recovery plan approved by the Twenty-Seven this summer, and endowed with 750 billion in total, is financed by an unprecedented common debt, but the decision allowing the European Commission to borrow on the markets has yet to be subject ratification by all member states. At present, only six countries, including France, have ratified this agreement on “
own resources
” - a procedure involving national or regional parliaments, depending on the country.