EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
1.CONTEXT OF THE DELEGATED ACT
1.1. General background and objective
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has a significant impact on the economic and social situation in the European Union. While the immediate effects of the crisis have been cushioned by Member States’ short-term measures, massive investments and structural reforms will be needed in the medium to long-term to recover from the crisis and build a more sustainable, resilient and fairer Europe for the next generations. To meet this challenge, the European Union adopted a European Recovery Plan in December 2020, consisting of a reinforced multiannual financial framework for the period 2021-2027 and a new temporary recovery package called Next Generation EU. Together, these instruments will unlock EUR 1,85 trillion (in 2018 prices) to support Member States in their efforts to address the crisis, kick-start the EU economy and put it on a more sustainable and resilient path.
Regulation (EU) 2021/241 of the European Parliament and of the Council 1 establishing the Recovery and Resilience Facility (the ‘RRF Regulation’) was adopted in February 2021 as the largest programme under Next Generation EU. With a budget of EUR 672.5 billion, disbursed in non-repayable financial support and loans, the Recovery and Resilience Facility (‘the Facility’) supports large-scale public investments and reforms undertaken by Member States to recover from the COVID-19 crisis and promote the Union’s economic, social and territorial cohesion.
In order to ensure transparency and accountability in its implementation, the Facility is embedded in a performance monitoring framework. The RRF Regulation sets out that the information received via the performance monitoring framework will be made available to the European Parliament, the other institutions and European citizens through the establishment of a recovery and resilience scoreboard (‘the Scoreboard’). The objective of the Scoreboard is to transparently provide concise information on progress with the implementation of the recovery and resilience plans. It will be publicly available online and will be updated twice a year, following the biannual reporting by the Member States. The Scoreboard will include key indicators related to the scope and objectives of the Facility and will allow for monitoring the progress on the implementation of the recovery and resilience plans towards the achievement of these objectives. As such, common indicators will be defined to measure the overall performance of the Facility and show progress towards the achievement of its objectives. These common indicators will be integrated and reported on within the Scoreboard, which will constitute the performance reporting system of the Facility. The Scoreboard, and the common indicators it will contain, will be used by the Commission to prepare its annual reports to the European Parliament and the Council on the implementation of the Facility and its review report to the European Parliament and the Council on the implementation of the Facility in accordance with Articles 31 and 16 of the RRF Regulation. Additionally, the Scoreboard will serve as a basis for the recovery and resilience dialogue between the European Parliament and the Commission, in accordance with Article 26(4) of the RRF Regulation.
The Commission and the Member State should foster synergies and ensure effective coordination between the Facility and other Union programmes and instruments. In accordance with Article 28, this should be done by (a) ensuring complementarity, synergy, coherence and consistency among different instruments at Union, national and where appropriate regional levels, in particular in relation to measures financed by Union funds, both in the planning phase and during implementation; (b) optimising mechanisms for coordination to avoid duplication efforts; and (c) ensuring close cooperation between those responsible for implementation and control at Union, national and, where appropriate, regional levels to achieve the objectives of the Facility. To this effect, the common indicators included in the Scoreboard should be consistent and coherent with those used for other EU funds. The monitoring of progress under the RRF through the Scoreboard does not preclude the use of other tools to monitor progress by Member States in the context of the European Semester, such as the Social Scoreboard.
This Delegated Regulation sets out the detailed elements of the Scoreboard that should display the progress of the implementation of the recovery and resilience plans, and the common indicators that will be used to report on the progress and for the purpose of monitoring and evaluation of the Facility and the recovery and resilience plans of the Member States. It differentiates between the common indicators and the other elements of the Scoreboard. The common indicators will need to be compiled by Member States, which requires additional details and instructions to ensure comparability of the data. The rest of the elements of the Scoreboard will be compiled by the Commission from the various information it will collect through the implementation of the Facility and Member States’ recovery and resilience plans, thereby ensuring comparability of the data. These elements therefore do not require the same level of details and instructions.
1.2. Legal background
Article 30(2) of the RRF Regulation empowers the Commission to define by means of a delegated act the detailed elements of the Scoreboard with a view to displaying the progress of the implementation of the recovery and resilience plans. Pursuant to Article 30(1) of the RRF Regulation, the Scoreboard shall constitute the performance reporting system of the Facility by displaying the progress of the implementation of the recovery and resilience plans of the Member States in each of the six pillars referred to in the scope of the Facility, and the progress of the implementation of the recovery and resilience plans in relation to the common indicators. Article 30(4) further specifies that the Scoreboard shall be operational by December 2021, shall be updated by the Commission twice a year, and shall be made publicly available on a website or internet portal.
Article 29(4)(a) of the RRF Regulation empowers the Commission to adopt by end of December 2021 a delegated act in order to set out the common indicators to be used for reporting on the progress and for the purpose of monitoring and evaluation of the Facility towards the achievement of the general and specific objectives. Pursuant to Article 29(5), Member States shall report to the Commission on the common indicators, and according to Article 27, such reporting should be done twice a year in the context of the European Semester.
In accordance with point 31 of the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making, this Delegated Regulation combines two interrelated empowerments of the RRF Regulation into a single act, namely Article 29(4)(a) on the common indicators and Article 30(2) on the Scoreboard. The decision to combine these two empowerments is due to their interrelation in substance, since the common indicators will form a significant part of the content of the Scoreboard, as provided by Article 30(3). Article 30(3) stipulates that the Scoreboard shall display the progress towards the common indicators referred to in Article 29(4). The RRF Regulation also provides a framework in terms of timing, since Article 27 stipulates that the common indicators will be reported on twice a year by Member States, and Article 30(4) stipulates that the Scoreboard will be updated twice a year. This will allow for the Scoreboard to reflect the updates provided by the Member States.
2.CONSULTATIONS PRIOR TO THE ADOPTION OF THE ACT
In line with the Common Understanding of 2016 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission, the Commission consulted Member States’ experts on this Delegated Regulation in two meetings on 28 May 2021 and 14 July 2021. Representatives of the European Parliament and the Council participated in the meeting as observers. Member States experts asked to reduce the administrative burden on their public administration by streamlining the number of common indicators proposed, and by limiting the disaggregation of data for these indicators. Member States experts also asked to clarify that the display of common indicators at individual Member State level will be presented in relative terms to avoid misleading comparisons due to the different size or nature of the recovery and resilience plans. Moreover, Member States experts asked for further clarification and details on the content of the scoreboard.
3.LEGAL ELEMENTS OF THE DELEGATED ACT
The right to adopt Delegated Acts is provided for under Article 29(4), point (a) and Article 30(2) of Regulation (EU) 2021/241.
Article 1 lays down the content of the recovery and resilience scoreboard and the list of common indicators.
Article 2 lays down the reporting requirements.
Article 3 lays down the entry into force of the Regulation.