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Continued delays are jeopardising the EU’s €724bn post-Covid recovery fund, warns a new report by the European Court of Auditors (ECA).

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00:00The European Court of Auditors says two European countries have not yet received a single euro
00:06from the post-pandemic fund.
00:08The Recovery and Resilience Facility was established in 2020 during the height of the Covid-19
00:13crisis to help EU economies, with close to 724 billion euros available in grants and
00:20loans.
00:21But the court says that since it began operating in February 2021, Sweden and the Netherlands
00:26have not benefited from it, while Hungary, Belgium, Finland, Ireland and Poland only
00:30started doing so in 2024.
00:33Hungary is in a particular situation, having received 919 million in pre-financing but
00:39no funds for the implementation of measures.
00:42In its plan, Budapest committed to 27 super milestones to fight against corruption and
00:47respect judicial independence, but it has not complied fully with them.
00:52In the case of the Netherlands, the delay is because of politics.
00:56In Netherlands it was political situation and change of the government, so they simply
01:02couldn't actually, because for RRF plan you need really political consensus and support
01:08and the government stands behind the plan and so on and Netherlands was waiting for
01:14that actually, stability let's say like that.
01:18Many other countries have submitted payment requests that are in some cases still being
01:23assessed by the European Commission.
01:25By the end of 2023, around 182 billion euros had been paid to member states, each linked
01:31to specific milestones and targets.
01:33But the court of auditors warns that these disbursements don't necessarily correspond
01:38to targets that have already been achieved.
01:41It can happen that they will face during construction period and implementation a lot of difficulties,
01:47obstacles and then delays, that they will not actually manage to do this by the end
01:52of 2026 and then they will not finish the whole project, the whole measure, while they
02:00already received in 2023 funds for signing the contract.
02:08For this reason, the court has recommended that the Commission take steps to ensure that
02:13any project financed using Recovery and Resilience Facility funds is actually completed.

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