Commission greenlights Germany’s final payment request for €6 billion under NextGenerationEU

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

Today, the European Commission positively assessed Germany’s fourth and final payment request worth €6 billion under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the centrepiece of NextGenerationEU.

With this payment request, Germany has implemented all the reforms and investments included in its recovery and resilience plan – corresponding to a total of €30.3 billion.

This marks a major milestone in the implementation of the RRF and shows Germany’s commitment to delivering reforms and investments under its national recovery and resilience plan.

The Commission found that Germany has satisfactorily completed the 8 milestones and 19 targets set out in the Council Implementing Decision. They correspond to reforms and investments in the areas of the clean transition of transport and energy infrastructure, energy efficiency of housing, as well as the digitalisation of healthcare and public administration.

Flagship measures in this payment request include:

• Advancing the clean transition through energy-efficient renovation of more than   36,000 buildings, support for over 1,100 projects to decarbonise district heating systems, and funding for the   purchase of more than 3000 electric and fuel cell buses, more than 550 commercial electric vehicles and 1,000 charging stations.
• Promoting an efficient and digital public administration, by enabling public authorities to securely retrieve standardised data from government databases, thereby reducing the administrative burden for citizens and businesses. In addition, support was provided for projects to digitalise processes and infrastructure across more than 1,600 German hospitals, helping to better integrate care and improve the efficiency of health services.
• Boosting innovation by supporting an Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) on renewable and low-carbon hydrogen to increase energy production capacity, and by funding hydrogen research projects aimed at overcoming the economic and technological barriers linked to the development of this clean energy source. Funds linked to this measure also provided support to German companies participating in another IPCEI on microelectronics and communication technologies, which aims to reduce resource dependencies and strengthen Europe’s production capabilities for the next generation of processors and other electronic components. These chips will help reduce energy consumption and improve the reliability of devices and the accuracy of sensors.

Next steps

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

Background

Germany submitted its payment request on 25 September 2026. The German recovery and resilience plan – underpinned by €30.3 billion in grants – includes a wide range of investment and reform measures supporting climate and digital transition objectives, such as the digital modernisation of public administration, digitalisation of hospitals, energy efficiency renovation of buildings and support to electric cars.

This payment will bring the total funds disbursed to Germany under the RRF to €30.3 billion, including €2.5 billion in pre-financing. This means that 100% of the funding allocated to Germany under its recovery and resilience plan will be delivered once the Council has also greenlighted the payment request, with all 127 milestones and targets successfully fulfilled.

With a view to the closure of the Facility at the end of 2026, Members States had to implement all outstanding milestones and targets by 31 August 2026 and submit last payment requests by the end of September 2026.

For more information

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

Germany’s recovery and resilience plan

Recovery and Resilience Facility

Recovery and Resilience Facility project map

Recovery and Resilience Scoreboard

Recovery and Resilience Facility Regulation

Recovery and Resilience payment claim process

EU as a borrower