Evaluatieverslag over de uitvoering van de herstel- en veerkrachtfaciliteit

On Tuesday 13 February, the “Regions for EU Recovery (R4EUR)” initiative organised a joint workshop on "Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) Mid-Term Evaluation: Contributions of R4EUR initiative". During the event, R4EUR presented their second benchmark study that gathers insights on the national Recovery and Resilience Plans' implementation and explores potential implications for the future of cohesion policy post-2027.

Invited to the workshop, the CoR rapporteur Rob Jonkman, took part in a panel on: "Implementation of the National Recovery Plans and their implications and impact on the future of Cohesion Policy post-2027: The perspective of the EU institutions" together with the following other speakers:
Mr Jorge Núñez-Ferrer – Director (Cohesion and EU Budget), Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) - Moderator
Ms Céline Gauer – Head of Task force, SG. RECOVER, European Commission
Ms Sari Rautio – Member of the Commission’s Group of high-level experts on the future of Cohesion Policy, Member of the CoR
Mr Javier Doz Orrit – Member Group II (Workers), EESC
Mr Matthias de Moor – Diplomatic Representative of Flanders to the European Union

On 27 November, the rapporteur Rob JONKMAN took part in the conference "Road to Recovery – Barcelona" organised by the EPP and its Spanish member PP.
Rob JONKMAN spoke in a panel on the "Involvement of local authorities in the design and implementation of the Recovery Plan: lessons learnt" alongside: José Manuel FERNANDES, MEP | Head of the PSD Delegation in the EPP Group, Rosa ESTARÁS, Secretary General of the Spanish Delegation of the EPP Group, Former Vice-President of the Balearic Islands, Member of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, Antoni CAÑETE, President PYMEC, VP SME United, and Xavier GARCÍA ALBIOL, Mayor of Badalona.

On 24 November, the rapporteur Rob JONKMAN took part in the conference "Road to Recovery – Leipzig" organised by the EPP and its German members CDU and CSU.
Rob JONKMAN spoke in a panel on the "Involvement of local authorities in the design and implementation of the Recovery Plan: lessons learnt" alongside: Jan OLBRYCHT, MEP | Vice-Chair of the EPP Group in the European Parliament, Franz-Josef WILLEMS, Managing Director, EPC Engineering & Technologies GmbH, Thomas GOTTWEISS, Member of the CDU-Group in the State Parliament of Thuringia, Energy Policy Spokesman, and Peter KLEINE, Lord Mayor of Weimar.

In a report published on 24 October 2023, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) audited the RRF’s performance monitoring framework and concluded that it measures implementation progress but only partly the RRF’s performance.

Milestones and targets and common indicators contribute to measuring progress but focus on output rather than results and do not fully cover all aspects of the RRF’s performance. The RRF scoreboard is user-friendly but affected by data quality and transparency issues. The early RRF reports mostly complied with the reporting obligations but the information on performance was limited.

The ECA recommends that the Commission improves the quality of RRF reporting and addresses the shortcomings regarding performance monitoring in future instruments based on financing not linked to costs.

On 19 September, the Commission adopted its second annual report on the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).

According to the Commission: "The report shows the progress made with the RRF to increase Member States' economic and social resilience and deliver on REPowerEU, the EU's response to the hardships and global energy market disruption caused by Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. It highlights the benefits from this unique performance-based instrument, where payment of EU funds is conditional on meeting agreed milestones and targets that respond to Member States' specific challenges and EU priorities. The report also shows that major headway has been made in terms of transparency and protection of the EU's financial interests."

As of the report's publication, the Commission had received 34 payment requests from 21 Member States and disbursed €153.4 billion.

31 August 2023 was the legal deadline for Member States to request loan support at the time of the submission of a revised recovery and resilience plan, as stipulated in Article 14(2) of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) regulation.

The following day, 1 September, the Commission published an overview of Member States' loan requests:

These total around €292.6 billion (at current prices), or approximately 76% of the total €385.8 billion of loan support is available under the RRF.

Under the already approved plans, seven Member States (Greece, Italy, Cyprus, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Slovenia) have already benefited from loan support, amounting to around 165.4 billion euros.

Further, not yet approved loan requests come from ten Member States, either to increase the loan support already provided (Greece, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia), or as a first request for loans (Belgium, Czechia, Spain, Croatia, Lithuania and Hungary), for a total amount of 127.2 billion 'euros.

On 26 May 2023, the rapporteur Rob JONKMAN was invited to the Conference on “Road to Recovery”, in Košice, Slovakia.

He participated in a panel on the "Involvement of local authorities in the design and implementation of the Recovery Plan: lessons learnt" alongside MEPs Jan OLBRYCHT and Peter POLLÁK, Slovak State Secretary Ľuboš JANČÍK, and Mayor of Prešov, František OĽHA.

On 21 February 2023, the European Commission adopted a Communication marking the two-year anniversary of the creation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), and taking stock of its implementation so far.

In response, the President of the CoR, Vasco Alves Cordeiro, and the rapporteur on the RRF, Rob Jonkman, jointly called on the European Commission to finally investigate the effective contribution of the RRF to cohesion in Europe and the added value of the financed projects.

The President of the CoR, Vasco Alves Cordeiro (PT/PES), said: "Two years ago, in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, European solidarity prevailed as we adopted a historical recovery plan. With the green and digital transformations as objectives, its success relies on a good articulation with cohesion policy in order to strengthen the social, economic and territorial cohesion and to ensure that no region is left behind. Bearing in mind the challenges Europe faces today, we need a coordinated approach at EU level supporting ambitious investments to deliver strong and fair solutions for citizens in all cities and regions."

Rob Jonkman (NL/EPP), alderman of the municipality of Opsterland and CoR rapporteur on the implementation of the RRF, stated: "As the European Committee of the Regions has reiterated on recent occasions, local and regional authorities have important legal competences in many Member States across the six pillars of the RRF, especially the implementation of the green transitions, and digital transformation to economic and territorial cohesion and competitiveness. Take for example, climate adaptation works, major infrastructure projects towards sustainable urban mobility and green public procurement all affect local and regional authorities' plans. Cities and regions' involvement in the further implementation of this time-limited, once in a generation Recovery Plan is therefore not only a matter of logic and fairness, but also necessary for the RRF to truly achieve its stated objectives and avoid an absorption problem. As such, local and regional authorities should be recognised and treated as partners, not so-called 'stakeholders', as the language of this Communication uses again. We need more partnership and multi-level cooperation and less centralisation. Moreover, the financing potential that remains represents a good opportunity for member states which could access affordable loans. We call for the support of the European Parliament in particular, in ensuring more transparency and parliamentary control for the accessing of RRF funds by local and regional authorities."

On 8 February 2023, the CoR Plenary Session unanimously adopted the opinion on the RRF Review Report drafted by Mr Jonkman. Through the opinion, local and regional leaders already voiced criticism of the review report published in July 2022 by the European Commission, describing it as a "missed opportunity" for failing to address the governance of the national recovery and resilience plans and the lack of involvement of local and regional authorities.

Following the adoption of this opinion in ECON on 7 December 2022, Binnenlands Bestuur published an article entitled "Kritiek op te centralistisch coronaherstelplan"

On 18 November 2022, the rapporteur Rob Jonkman was invited to take part in the Expert Group on Governance of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), in order to to present his draft opinion on the Review Report on the RRF and debate RRF implementation with CEMR members.