Commission greenlights Finland’s fourth payment request for €267.1 million under NextGenerationEU

April 8, 2026 by European Union Leave a Comment

This article is published in association with European Investment Bank. — Helsinki, Finland (Alexandr Bormotin, Unsplash)

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission.

Today, the European Commission positively assessed Finland’s fourth payment request for €267.1 million under the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the centrepiece of NextGenerationEU.

Following its assessment of the payment request, the Commission found that Finland has satisfactorily completed the 10 milestones and 10 targets set out in the Council Implementing Decision.

The reforms and investments tied to this payment request will benefit Finnish citizens and businesses, particularly through advances in the areas of waste management, decarbonisation, labour market, healthcare, social services and the development of innovation in targeted economic sectors.

Flagship measures in this payment request include:

A comprehensive waste management reform, featuring new legislation that mandates the separate collection of various waste streams and establishes binding targets for packaging waste recycling. This legislative overhaul is reinforced by targeted investments in projects aimed at boosting re-use and recycling rates in Finland.
Enhanced career support and employment services, including dedicatedtrainings of career guidance professionals and better tailored support for jobseekers in the labour market.

Next steps

The Commission has now sent its preliminary assessment of Finland’s fulfilment of the milestones and targets required for this payment to the Council’s Economic and Financial Committee (EFC). The payment to Finland can take place following the EFC’s opinion and the adoption of a payment decision by the Commission.

Background

Finland submitted its payment request on 18 December 2025. The Finnish recovery and resilience plan includes a wide range of investment and reform measures supporting climate and digital transition objectives. The plan will be financed by €1.95 billion in grants.

With today’s positive assessment, this payment request will bring the funds paid to Finland under the RRF to €1.39 billion (including the €271 million in pre-financing it received in October 2021 and the €25 million pre-payment under REPowerEU it received in December 2023), corresponding to 71% of all the funds in its national plan, with 63% of all milestones and targets in the plan now fulfilled.

An interactive map of projects financed by the RRF, as well as the Recovery and Resilience Scoreboard, is available online. More information on the process of payment requests under the RRF can be found equally online.

For More Information

Commission’s preliminary assessment of Finland’s fourth payment request

Plan overview, full plan and all other related documents

Recovery and Resilience Facility

Recovery and Resilience Facility project map

Recovery and Resilience Scoreboard

Recovery and Resilience Facility Regulation

EU as a borrower

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