EU Commission unlocks EUR 9 mln to Lithuania out of frozen RRF funds

VILNIUS – The European Commission (EC) on Tuesday adopted a positive preliminary assessment, which will result in unlocking to Lithuania the amount of almost 9 million euros out of frozen 26 million euros in the Recovery and Resilience Facility’s (RRF) funds, the Finance Ministry reported.

According to the ministry, the Commission’s decision was taken after assessing additional information provided by Lithuania, in view of which the Commission deemed the milestone, related to environmental taxes and taxation of other sources less detrimental to economic growth, fulfilled satisfactorily.

A total of 8.7 million euros will be disbursed for this milestone and the funds will reach Lithuania in February or March 2024 as the Commission’s assessment still needs to be discussed by the EU Council.

The remaining part of the subsidy will be the subject of a further two months of dialogue, after which a final decision will be taken.

The Commission has also concluded that Lithuania made progress towards achieving the milestone related to the abolition of tax exemptions or special tax regimes but the progress remains insufficient for the Commission to assess the milestone as satisfactorily fulfilled.

Therefore, the Commission has asked Lithuania to present its observations within two months, following which the Commission will take a final decision on the remaining frozen amount. 

In May, the Commission disbursed the first tranche of 542.3 million euros to Lithuania from the Recovery and Resilience Facility, which was made possible by Lithuania's fulfillment of around 30 milestones linked to the first installment. 

At the same time, 26 million euros was temporarily withheld for two outstanding milestones.

There are 191 milestones in the plan and progress towards their fulfillment is being monitored together with the Commission’s experts.