Poland approached the European Commission with a request to modify the NRP and to add a chapter on the REPowerEU plan, created with the aim of terminating the Union’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels, as the European Commission announced on Friday.
“Poland’s request for a modification of the plan is justified by the imperative to consider the high inflation observed in 2022 and 2023 and the impossibility of implementing certain measures within the originally envisaged timeframe due to objective circumstances,” the EC stated.
The Commission explained that the proposal also includes a downward revision of the maximum grant allocation for Poland under the Reconstruction and Resilience Facility (RRF) from EUR 23.9 billion to EUR 22.5 billion.
“The revision is part of the June 2022 update to the RRF grant allocation key and reflects Poland’s relatively better economic performance in 2020 and 2021 than initially anticipated,” the EC added.
The chapter requested by Poland under the REPowerEU plan includes novel investments to develop electricity distribution networks in rural areas, support for institutions implementing REPowerEU measures and the development of gas infrastructure to enable the diversification of supply.
“Furthermore, five investments were transferred from the initial plan to the REPowerEU chapter, three of which were increased. They concern support for electricity transmission grids, renewable energy sources, energy storage, low- and zero-emission buses and offshore wind farms,” the EC explained further.
The European Commission also announced that Poland has requested additional loans of EUR 23 billion to finance the revised plan, which represents an addition to the loans already granted under the original plan of EUR 11.5 billion.
“These measures, together with the RRF and REPowerEU grant allocations –EUR 22.5 billion and EUR 2.76 billion respectively – make the submitted modified plan worth almost EUR 60 billion,” states the EC release.
The Commission is now expected to assess whether the modified plan still complies with all the criteria outlined in the RRF Regulation. If the Commission’s assessment is positive, it will propose to amend the EU Council decision to reflect the modifications to the Polish plan. Member States will then have up to four weeks to approve EC’s assessment.
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