Today, the Commission has endorsed a positive preliminary assessment of Latvia's second payment request for €335.7 million (net of pre-financing) under the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the centrepiece of NextGenerationEU.
Following its assessment of the payment request, submitted on 22 December 2023, the Commission has concluded on a preliminary basis that Latvia has satisfactorily completed the 40 milestones and 3 targets set out in the Council Implementing Decision for the second instalment.
The payment request covers important steps in the delivery of 23 reforms and 20 investments that will drive positive change for citizens and businesses in Latvia in the areas of higher education, digitalisation, healthcare, affordable housing, energy efficiency, clean mobility, customs and tax compliance.
Flagship measures in this payment request include:
Reforming the governance of higher education institutions: Latvia has adopted a new regulatory framework that will improve the governance of Latvian public universities through more independent and balanced decision-making. The reform also encourages strategic specialisation and promotes more internationally competitive Latvian public universities. The reform will be complemented by RRF investments in the form of grants which will encourage public universities to merge their capacities, accelerate digitalisation and create new programmes for students. The new governance structure was implemented by all public universities in 2022.
Affordable housing: Latvia has adopted a strategy for affordable housing that will bring positive change for people in Latvia, providing affordable housing solutions to households that need it the most. Actions under the strategy will further promote both the repair of the existing housing stock and the development of new constructions. Through the RRF, Latvia is also supporting regional labour mobility through the planned construction of 467 low-rent and eco-friendly apartments.
Next steps
The Commission has sent its preliminary assessment of Latvia's fulfilment of the milestones and targets required for this payment to the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC), which now has four weeks to deliver its opinion. Depending on the outcome, the payment to Latvia can take place following the EFC's opinion, and the adoption of a payment decision by the Commission.
Background
The Latvian recovery and resilience plan includes a wide range of investment and reform measures (more information on the Latvian plan, including a map of projects financed by the Recovery and Resilience Facility in Latvia are available here). The plan will be financed by €1.96 billion in grants. The payment request for which the preliminary assessment was endorsed today follows Latvia's first payment request, which was endorsed by the Commission on 29 July 2022 and paid out to Latvia on 7 October 2022.
This payment request will bring the funds paid out to Latvia under the Recovery and Resilience Facility to €801 million (including the €237 million in pre-financing it received in September 2021 and the €27 million pre-payment under REPowerEU it received on 25 January 2024), which correspond to 41% of all the funds in the Latvian plan, with 23% of all the milestones and targets in the plan fulfilled.
