The Renew Europe Group in the European Parliament welcomed last week’s backing of a proposal for the inclusion of the REPowerEU chapters in the national Recovery and Resilience Plans by the European Parliament. This will offer Member States additional funds to accelerate the end of the EU’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels, while tackling the current climate and energy crises.

With the leadership of Renew Europe, the adopted text foresees cross-border projects with a great impact on energy generation, storage and interconnections along the EU as a priority (at least 35% of REPowerEU projects), while including targeted measures to protect vulnerable households and companies in Europe, especially SMEs. The proposal also improves monitoring of the funds and secures adequate application of the Do No Significant Harm Principle (DNSH) to the reforms and investments contribution of the REPowerEU goals.

Renew Europe will remain vigilant to ensure that changes in national Recovery and Resilience plans are directly linked to the objectives of REPowerEU, and that such changes are not pretext to circumvent certain structural reforms at the national level.

Dragoş Pîslaru MEP (REPER, RO), Renew Europe co-rapporteur on this file, declared:

“Today, guided by solidarity, ambition and flexibility, we provide Member States with the tools to overcome this winter. We equip our continent with projects that will help us to cut our dependency on Russian fossil fuels. We invest in our continent to make it more sustainable for our next generations. REPowerEU will allow governments to improve their recovery plans with extra investments for more energy efficiency, for tackling energy poverty and for greener energy resources”.

Eva Poptcheva MEP (Ciudadanos, ES), Renew Europe Budget shadow rapporteur on this file, added:

“REPowerEU is another historic milestone for the European Union. With this text, we adapt the recovery funds to the current energy crisis. REPowerEU is not about improving energy supply in Poland or storage in Spain. REPowerEU is about ensuring that no household or business ever lacks energy on European soil”.