Analysis: Slovenia's recovery plan with lowest shares of funds for green, digital goals
Brussels - Slovenia's recovery and resilience plan is leading the way in terms of a high share of "other" investments, while the shares of "digital" and "green" investments are the lowest among the 23 EU member states' plans analysed by Bruegel, a Brussels-based think tank.
The national plans will be the basis for EU states to draw post-pandemic funds from the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), a fund worth over EUR 672 billion.
All countries had to state the overall shares of the funds they would spend on green goals, where the minimum should be 37%, and digital goals, with the minimum at 20%.
Generally, countries entitled to more funds due to their GDP, including Slovenia, presented national plans with lower shares of green and digital investments and with higher shares of "other" investments, that is non-green and non-digital ones, according to Bruegel.
From EUR 2.6 billion in available funds, Slovenia plans to spend EUR 0.77 billion on green (roughly 30%) and EUR 0.17 billion on digital goals (roughly 7%), the lowest among the 23 states analysed.
The rest of EUR 1.62 billion, or around 62% of the funds, has been earmarked for "other" investments, the highest among all the countries, according to the think tank.
The countries which are entitled to relatively few funds given their GDP, such as Germany, Luxembourg and Denmark, gave more focus to green and digital investments.
Slovenia meanwhile plans to use all available grants from the RRF, which is in line with a wast majority of the other EU states.
It is however also one of the seven states to have asked for loans from this facility - it plans to use some EUR 0.7 billion, while it could use EUR 3.2 billion, said Bruegel.
Until 2 June, 23 member states sent their national plans to Brussels. The four missing plans have not been included in the analysis.
Bruegel noted that comparing the national plans was very demanding as states structured and categorised data in different ways.
The Slovenian government adopted the plan in end April, structuring it around four priority pillars: green transition; digital transformation; smart, sustainable and inclusive growth; health and welfare.
It said that out of the EUR 2.5 billion available under Slovenia's plan, 43% was intended for green goals and 20% for digital goals.
It also said that the plan envisaged the use of all EUR 1.8 billion in grants, and EUR 666 million out of the EUR 3.6 billion in available loans.