The Netherlands has not yet submitted its national recovery plan to the European Commission. In a letter dated 30 April 2021 – the due date for submission - the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs and the Minister of Finance informed the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission that they decided to leave the finalization of the recovery plan to the new government, which is being formed on the basis of the results of the 17 March 2021 election. As of writing, the process of forming a new government is still ongoing.
Regulation (EU) 2021/241 establishing the Recovery and Resilience Facility contains a ‘soft’ deadline for national recovery plan submissions, being that recovery plans should be submitted before 30 April 2021 ‘as a rule’. The European Commission’s Q&A on the Recovery and Resilience Facility further details that Member States may notify their plans at any point in time until mid-2022.Therefore, the Netherlands has not foregone the opportunity to benefit from the support of the facility by not yet submitting its recovery plan. While the details of the Dutch recovery plan are to be worked out by the new government with support from the newly elected parliament, the competent Ministers have already alluded that it should be an ‘ambitious plan that contains investments and reforms addressing the 2019 and 2020 CSR’s’ (Country Specific Recommendations).
For more information contact Pauline Kuipers or Manuela Cox