Commission greenlights Finland's fifth payment request for €229.2 million under NextGenerationEU

Today, the European Commission positively assessed Finland's fifth payment request of €229.2 million under the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the centrepiece of NextGenerationEU. 

This is an important step in the delivery of the reforms and investments tied to this payment request, in the areas of decarbonisation, environmental sustainability, green permitting, digitalisation, cybersecurity, social welfare and healthcare, continuous learning, research infrastructure and support for innovative growth in targeted economic sectors.

The Commission found that Finland has satisfactorily completed all the 10 milestones and 12 targets set out in the Council Implementing Decision.

Flagship measures in this payment request include:

• Fuelling green research and development with new openings for research in key areas such as electricity storage, clean energy, energy efficiency, decarbonisation of industry and renewable hydrogen.
• Strengthening competitiveness by supporting projects to help innovative companies grow internationally, reinforcing Finland's strategic specialisation and its export-driven economic backbone.    
• Delivering on environmental sustainability by improving soil quality through the treatment of more than 50,000 hectares of fields with gypsum.
• Reinforcing youth centres by deploying additional 100 professionals to provide health, education and social services to young people.
• Digitalising lifelong learning by creating new services and opportunities in continuous learning to address training needs and support guidance, competence development and career planning.

Next steps

The Commission has sent its preliminary assessment of Finland's fulfilment of the milestones and targets required for this payment to the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC), which has four weeks to deliver its opinion. 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 2 June 2026.

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.

This payment request would bring the funds paid to Finland under the RRF to €1.62 billion (including the clearing of all outstanding pre-financing). This amount corresponds to 83% of all the funds in its national plan, with 81% of all milestones and targets in the plan now fulfilled. 

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

For more information

Commission's preliminary assessment of Finland's fifth payment request (link to be added)

Finland's recovery and resilience plan

Recovery and Resilience Facility

Recovery and Resilience Facility project map

Recovery and Resilience Scoreboard

Recovery and Resilience Facility Regulation

EU as a borrower