The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic has changed the economic future of the European Union.

Investment and reforms are needed more than ever to ensure convergence and a sustainable economic recovery. Implementing reforms and investing in the EU's common priorities, in particular green, digital and social resilience, will help create jobs and sustainable growth, modernize our economies at the same time, and enable the Union to recover in a balanced way, looking to the future and sustainable development.

EU recovery strategies should:
• Address the main challenges they face covered by the European Semester in areas such as competitiveness, productivity, education and skills, health, employment and economic, and social and territorial cohesion.
• Ensure that these investments and reforms are adequately targeted at the challenges of green and digital transition to help create jobs and sustainable growth and make the Union more resilient

1. WHAT?
The Recovery and Resilience Mechanism consists of strong financial support for both public investment and reforms, especially green and digital, which will make EU economies more resilient and better prepared for the future.
The support will take the form of up to 310 billion euros in grants and up to 250 billion euros in loans. The instrument will be demand-driven and will be triggered by a € 750 billion emergency European recovery instrument, the 'next generation EU', which will temporarily boost the financial strength of the EU budget by allowing the EU budget to raise additional funding in financial markets.

2. HOW?
EU support will be covered by the National Recovery and Resilience Plans to be submitted to the Commission.
If the criteria are met, Member States will be able to receive grants with the possibility of supplementing loans:

Grants:

• Maximum allocations for each EU country, depending on population, GDP per capita and unemployment rate
Loans:

• Maximum loan amount for each Member State up to 4.7% of its gross national income.
• Loans can be requested together with the plan or at another time with a revised plan attached

Grants and loans will be paid in installments upon fulfillment of conditions and objectives.
Technical support may be requested for the preparation and implementation of recovery and resilience plans through the Technical Assistance Instrument.