The European Commission has today endorsed a positive preliminary assessment for Estonias payment request of €122.3 million in grants under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).
After assessing the payment request submitted on 9 December 2024, the Commission concluded that Estonia has satisfactorily achieved the 18 milestones and targets outlined in the Council Implementing Decision for the third installment.
A variety of reforms are promoting positive changes for citizens and businesses, encouraging sustainable transport and energy methods, enhancing digital public services, reducing the gender pay gap, and strengthening Estonias healthcare resilience. The request also includes significant investments in renewable energy, sustainable mobility through the construction of Rail Baltic viaducts, and digital services transitioning to cloud infrastructure.
Flagship measures in this payment request include:
- A comprehensive reform in the organization of healthcare in Estonia: this reform enhances the resilience of Estonias healthcare system, including crisis management, ensuring access to high-quality, integrated healthcare across Estonia. It foresees a reimbursement system for nurses, encouraging them to work in remote areas, and an increase in nursing training admissions.
- Deployment of resource-efficient green technologies: this investment enhances companies resource efficiency, particularly energy efficiency, focusing on the utilization of underused bio-resources such as residues and by-products. It includes grants for 36 projects on green technologies for industrial plants and bioresource utilization.
Next steps
The Commission has sent its preliminary assessment of Estonias fulfillment of the required milestones and targets to the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC), which has four weeks to provide its opinion. The payment to Estonia can occur following the EFCs opinion and the adoption of a payment decision by the Commission.
Background
Estonias overall recovery and resilience plan will be financed by €953 million in grants.
More information on Estonias Recovery and Resilience plan can be found on this page, featuring an interactive map of projects financed by the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), as well as on the Recovery and Resilience Scoreboard. More information on the process of payment requests under the RRF can be found in this document of questions and answers.