NextGenerationEU: Malta submits request to modify recovery and resilience plan and add a REPowerEU chapter

Today, Malta submitted a request to the Commission to modify its recovery and resilience plan, to which it also wants to add a REPowerEU chapter.

Malta’s proposed modification of the plan foresees new transformative measures to deliver on the REPowerEU objectives. The REPowerEU chapter added to Malta’s recovery and resilience plan includes a reform aiming at accelerating the permitting of renewable energy projects and introducing an obligation to install rooftop solar panels on new buildings. It also includes an investment targeted at upgrading and expanding the capacity of Malta’s electricity grid, including battery storage solutions. At the same time, Malta is proposing to remove three investments from the plan and modify a small number of measures. The overall reform ambition of Malta’s recovery and resilience plan remains unchanged.

Malta’s request to modify its plan is based on the need to factor in the downward revision of its maximum RRF grant allocation, from €316 million to €258 million. The revision is part of the June 2022 update to the RRF grants allocation key and reflects Malta’s comparatively better economic outcome in 2020 and 2021 than initially foreseen.

Malta has requested to transfer a portion of its share of the Brexit Adjustment Reserve (BAR), amounting to €40 million, to its recovery and resilience plan. These funds, added to Malta’s REPowerEU grants allocation (€30 million), make the overall submitted modified plan worth €328 million.

The Commission has now up to two months to assess the amendments put forward by Malta and evaluate whether the modified plan still fulfils the assessment criteria in the RRF Regulation. If the Commission’s assessment is positive, it will make a proposal for an amended Council Implementing Decision to reflect the changes to the Maltese plan. Member States will then have up to four weeks to endorse the Commission’s assessment.

More information on the process concerning REPowerEU chapters and the revision of recovery and resilience plans can be found in this Q&A.