NextGenerationEU: total funds allocated from the Recovery & Resilience Facility

The NextGenerationEU economic package was agreed upon by the institutions and member states of the European Union in the Summer of 2020, in response to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. NextGenEU is made up of several different support programs, the largest of which is the Recovery & Resilience Facility (RRF). The aim of this facility is to assist EU member states in stimulating economic growth in order to recover from the COVID-19 economic recession, with a focus on promoting the green energy transition, spurring digitalization, and developing institutional capacity.

The countries which will receive the greatest amount of funds over the course of NextGenEU's lifecycle (2021-2026) are Italy, Spain, and France. These countries were perhaps the worst hit states in the EU by the pandemic, with Italy having been the first hotspot of coronavirus cases in Europe. Due to the exceptional public health measures that were taken to try to stem the spread of the virus, these countries' economies were severely impacted. The NextGenEU packages reflect a paradigm shift in EU economic policy, as the union is moving away from the austerity policies which it followed in the aftermath of the Eurozone crisis in the 2010s, and towards more expansionist fiscal policies which seek to increase public investment.