Commission endorses Austria's €4 billion modified recovery and resilience plan, including a REPowerEU chapter
Commission endorses Austria's €4 billion modified RRP
Today, the Commission has positively assessed Austria's modified recovery and resilience plan, which includes a REPowerEU chapter. The plan benefits from €3.96 billion in grants and covers 30 reforms and 34 investments.
Austria's REPowerEU chapter, worth €210 million, includes two new reforms, one new investment as well as a scale-up of an investment in the original plan to help deliver on the REPowerEU Plan's objective to make Europe independent from Russian fossil fuels well before 2030. The chapter focuses on accelerating the take-up of renewable energy, renewable hydrogen and decarbonising road transport.
In addition to this, Austria has proposed changes to 14 measures in its original recovery and resilience plan. No investment or reform has been removed. These changes are based mainly on the need to factor in the very high inflation experienced in 2022 as well as supply chain disruptions caused by Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, which have made investments more expensive and caused delays.
Austria's €210 million grant allocation under REPowerEU together with the upward revision of Austria's maximum Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) grant allocation from €3.5 billion to €3.75 billion brings the total grant allocation for Austria to €3.96 billion. This upward revision is a result of the June 2022 update to the RRF grants allocation key.
A boost to Austria's green transition
The modified plan has a strong focus on the green transition, allocating 56% of the available funds to measures that support climate objectives, which is well above the required target of 37%.
Austria' original plan contains reforms such as the eco-social tax reform, the Renewables Expansion Law, and the Renewable Heating Law plus various investments to support businesses and households in their green transition. The REPowerEU chapter further strengthens this aspect.
The measures included in the REPowerEU chapter contribute to reducing the reliance on fossil fuels, accelerating the deployment of renewables and the decarbonisation of transport.
The reform of the environmental impact assessment law aims at streamlining permitting procedures for renewable energy projects, in particular wind farms. This will help Austria reach its ambitious 2030 targets for the deployment of renewable energy. The second reform concerns the adoption and implementation of a national hydrogen strategy setting a clear focus on promoting renewable hydrogen. The new investment introduced in the REPowerEU chapter is a subsidy scheme for citizens and non-profit organisations supporting the installation and expansion of “rooftop” photovoltaic systems and electricity storage systems. The second investment is a scale-up of a scheme included in the original plan to support the purchase of heavy-duty zero-emission commercial vehicles and the construction of electric charging infrastructure.
Reinforcing Austria's digital preparedness and social resilience
The modified RRP also significantly contributes to a digital transformation in a range of areas, including connectivity, public administration and public services, education, research and innovation, health and culture. The modification of measures - in particular reducing the number of households to be covered by Gigabit-capable networks due to increased costs and scaling down the investment into the Digitalisation Fund for public administration due to insufficient demand - have reduced the contribution of the modified plan to this pillar, but at 36% it remains ambitious and well above the minimum target set at 20%.
The modified plan's social dimension remains ambitious, with the health and social reforms remaining largely unchanged. The modifications concerning education support the objectives of the initial plan to improve the access to education. In particular, three new reforms replace two targets. These will improve access of pupils to national standardised assessments and set criteria for the specification of the socio-economic baseline of schools, guiding the allocation of human resources to schools.
Next steps
The Council will now have, as a rule, four weeks to endorse the Commission's assessment.
The Council's endorsement will prepare the ground for Austria to submit its second payment request under the RRF and a request for €42 million in pre-financing of the REPowerEU funds.
The Commission will authorise further disbursements based on the satisfactory fulfilment of the milestones and targets outlined in Austria's recovery and resilience plan, reflecting progress on the implementation of the investments and reforms.
Background
Under the RRF, Austria has so far received €1.15 billion in total, made up of €450 million in pre-financing in September 2021, and €700 million for the first payment request disbursed in April 2023.
For More Information
Commission's positive assessment of Austria's revised plan
Austria's Recovery and Resilience Plan website
Recovery and Resilience Facility: Questions and Answers
REPowerEU chapters and revision of recovery plans: Questions and Answers
