The EU finance ministers have adopted the first twelve EU development plans to cope with the corona pandemic – including that of Germany. The first funds from the so-called EU Development and Resilience Facility (RFF) can now be paid out to the states. This was announced by the representation of the member states on Tuesday.
A year ago, the heads of state and government agreed on a € 750 billion program for economic recovery after the pandemic. The RFF make up the lion’s share of this. The member states have to submit detailed applications for their share of the aid, which are examined by the EU Commission and approved by the Council of EU states. Germany can expect around 25.6 billion euros in grants from the RFF.
The program is financed through joint debts. Corona aid has already flowed from Brussels. However, these were part of a different, overall much smaller program. At the end of July, a total of 800 million euros in corona aid had been transferred to Germany and 15 other countries. The money will also be used to create “a greener, more digital, more innovative and more competitive Europe for the next generations in the EU,” said Slovenian Finance Minister Andrej Šircelj. Slovenia currently holds the rotating presidency among the EU countries.
All states had to submit detailed construction plans to the EU Commission. The federal cabinet approved this plan at the end of April. In Germany, the Federal Constitutional Court had stopped the ratification of the legal basis for borrowing because critics considered joint debt to be inadmissible and complained. The Federal Constitutional Court rejected the corresponding urgent motion of the plaintiffs’ alliance around the former AfD chairman Bernd Lucke in April.