Lithuania has submitted the last payment request under the plan "Next Generation Lithuania" – nearly one billion European funds will reach the country by the end of the year
Lithuania has submitted the seventh and last payment request - amounting to EUR 1.1 billion - to the European Commission under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). Having assessed that all the plan’s targets and milestones have been fulfilled, the European Commission will disburse EUR 992.8 million to Lithuania at the end of December, as the country has already received a portion of the funds as an advance. With the receipt of this amount, a total of nearly EUR 4 billion in RRF funds will have been injected into the Lithuanian economy over the course of five years.
“The timely and full implementation of the plan “Next Generation Lithuania” is an undoubted success story for Lithuania, with almost EUR 4 billion of European funds injected into our economy providing a very strong stimulus to Lithuania’s economic growth. We have also developed social projects and implemented the necessary reforms, all of which in one form or another bring real and tangible benefits to every citizen of the country," Minister of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania Taurimas Valys says.
According to the Minister, the success of the plan “Next Generation Lithuania” also provides the basis for the successful implementation of projects for the next funding period 2028-2034. Last but not least, European investment has reached not only major cities but also regions, a priority for the 21st Government.
"European investments in the regions improve the quality of life for local residents and provide a boost to businesses and investment, while the creation of new jobs enables people to work and earn," Minister T. Valys states.
Lithuania reports to the EC with the last payment request for the reform of intercity transport, investments in health, energy, building renovation, cybersecurity, education, innovation and other areas.
"It should be emphasized that among all the reforms and investments implemented there are many that are directly interlinked and this is a great advantage that brings the maximum benefit – for example, the consolidation of ILTE was an action of reforms and its capital increase was an investment. There have also been many reforms in the field of renewable energy sources – legislative changes – and, at the same time, significant investments," the Minister states.
Among the key reforms and investment projects implemented over the entire five-year period of the plan “Next Generation Lithuania” (provided in a separate document), the Minister highlights several of the most important ones.
These include the implementation of tax changes, the review and increase of social benefits, the consolidation of ILTE and the capital increase; amendments to the legislation on facilitating the development of and direct investment in renewable energy sources. Also, the creation of the Innovation Agency and investments in start-ups, where the Agency was a project operator; in the area of information technology, significant investments are directed towards the wider opening of data to the public, digitalisation. The Millennium Schools project is both a programme with legislative changes and direct investment.
Also worth mentioning are the lifelong learning platform Kursuok.lt and the project for training and upskilling unemployed individuals.
So far, Lithuania has submitted six payment requests to the EC and received almost EUR 2.85 billion funds (a subsidy of EUR 1.73 billion and a loan of EUR 1.12 billion).
The plan “Next Generation Lithuania” (NGL) includes investments of EUR 3.8 billion (EUR 2.30 billion subsidy and EUR 1.55 billion loan from the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF)). A unique feature of the plan is that we report to the European Commission and receive EU funds for the milestones and targets fulfilled, including reforms.
In total, Lithuania’s NGL plan consists of 197 milestones and targets, all of which have been achieved at 100%, and all 78 reforms have been implemented.