The Netherlands was already the last country to be slow to hand in plans to claim the billions from the European corona recovery fund, but now it is in danger of missing out on those billions – or in part – due to slow legislation, according to the Financial Daily Tuesday morning.
The corona recovery fund was set up in 2020 by the European Commission with the aim of recovering European economies after the blow of the corona crisis. 750 billion euros were available, of which 390 billion as subsidies and 360 billion for loans. The Netherlands claimed a subsidy of 5.4 billion euros, including for the construction of offshore wind farms, the stimulation of hybrid heat pumps for households and the renewal of IT systems in defense.
The Netherlands itself insisted that the European Union would only award the money under strict conditions. For example, the money should only be intended for certain investments. The intention is that the money goes to socially relevant projects, such as digitalization and climate measures.
The Netherlands is now in danger of not meeting the conditions itself. In the worst case, it will miss out on the entire 5.4 billion euros, but more likely are discounts of up to 600 million euros on various components.
According to the outgoing cabinet, the delay is partly due to the fall of the cabinet. The objectives that the government submitted to the European Commission at the time contained little new: most of it came from the coalition agreement of VVD, D66, CDA and the Christian Union and some was already standing policy. But now that the cabinet is outgoing, many topics have been declared controversial, which means that relevant laws cannot be dealt with until there is a new cabinet. And therefore that they were not introduced in time for the corona billions – while the budgets in The Hague did take that money into account.
Even if bills fail in the Senate, this will hinder the necessary innovations. For example, certain benefits in energy tax had to be abolished, but the Senate voted against this. The money from the fund is also intended for specific projects, such as the European railway security system and government IT security. Technical problems cause delays there. It is not only the Netherlands that is having difficulty meeting all the boxes on time: less than a third of the money has been paid out so far. They will definitely miss out on the money that countries have not yet received by 2026. The rules should be more flexible, according to the EU itself, so the European Commission is re-examining the conditions.
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Tags: Netherlands danger missing billions European corona support
