EU’s Covid recovery fund under pressure to allocate unused funds

€500B remains unspent from EU’s Covid recovery fund Capitals urge European Commission to slash red tape fearing that huge amounts of money won’t ever be used. POLITICO

BRUSSELS — Governments have received less than a third of the EU's original €723 billion pot to help boost post-Covid economic recovery and are now heaping pressure on the European Commission to speed up payments.

Countries are demanding the Commission slash the mountain of red tape that is preventing them from getting their hands on their share of Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) cash or discouraging them from applying in the first place — sparking fears they will miss out on huge amounts of money when the initiative expires in 2026. It comes as the fund is mired in a corruption scandal with Italian police arresting more than 20 suspects across the EU as part of an investigation into fraud of more than €600 million.

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