Today, the Commission has given a positive assessment of Slovenia's modified recovery and resilience plan, which includes a REPowerEU chapter. The plan is now worth almost €2.7 billion and covers 34 reforms and 49 investments.
In light of the damage caused by last summer's catastrophic floods, Slovenia has decided to increase its amount of loans financing the plan, from €705 million to over €1 billion. Measures to be financed with the additional loans requested by Slovenia include the scaling-up of two investments of its original plan and the addition of three new investments in sustainable transport. These new investments concern the upgrade of railway stations (notably Ljubljana's and Nova Gorica's) and of strategic railway lines, including infrastructure that was affected by last summer's catastrophic floods. The additional loans will also finance investments in the sustainable renovation of buildings.
Importantly, Slovenia has added a REPowerEU chapter to its plan, foreseeing two new investments, one scaled-up reform and two scaled-up investments. These will enable Slovenia to deliver on the REPowerEU Plan's objectives to make Europe independent from Russian fossil fuels well before 2030, in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The new investments will support small, medium, and large businesses in their decarbonisation efforts, while building and upgrading electricity distribution networks to allow for renewable energy generators, as well as heat pumps and recharging points for electric vehicles. The scaled-up reform and investments will simplify the rules for solar and wind installations, while increasing renewable energy capacity in district heating systems and boosting public and private zero-emission transport.
Slovenia's revision of its original plan also covers the removal of six investments and several other changes concerning 43 investments and 12 reforms. All the changes described above are underpinned by the need to factor in:
the damage caused by the catastrophic floods that hit the country in August 2023;
high inflation experienced in 2022, affecting in particular the construction sector;
the downward revision of Slovenia's maximum RRF grant allocation, from €1.8 billion to €1.5 billion. This downward revision is a result of the June 2022 update to the RRF grants allocation key and reflects Slovenia's comparatively better economic outcome in 2020 and 2021 than initially foreseen.
To finance the increased ambition of its plan, Slovenia has requested to transfer to the plan its share of the Brexit Adjustment Reserve (BAR), in line with the REPowerEU Regulation, amounting to €5 million. These funds, added to Slovenia's RRF and REPowerEU grant allocation (amounting to €1.5 billion and €116 million, respectively) and to its RRF loan request of €1 billion, make the approved modified plan worth almost €2.7 billion.
An additional boost to Slovenia's green transition
The modified plan has a stronger focus on the green transition, devoting 48.9% (up from 42.5% in the original plan) of the available funds to measures that support climate objectives. Most notably, the newly added and scaled-up reforms and investments included in the REPowerEU chapter strongly contribute to the green transition. Overall, they reinforce the ambition to decarbonise the economy by increasing energy efficiency and the country's energy mix's share of renewables, while accelerating the integration of renewable energy sources through simplification and supporting the deployment of zero-emission transport.
Reinforcing Slovenia's digital preparedness and social resilience
Slovenia's plan continues to significantly contribute to the digital transition, though the modification of the plan has nominally decreased the overall proportion of digital measures. The plan now devotes 20% (down from the previous 21.4%) of its total allocation to support the digital transition. This is simply because, with a now higher number of measures, the digital investments represent a lower proportion of the total.
The plan foresees measures supporting the digital transition of businesses and industry, digitalising public services and public administration's digital infrastructure (building up connectivity, cloud and improving cybersecurity). Slovenia will be deploying advanced and user-friendly digital solutions and services, as well as transforming business processes and closing the digital gap with more traditional companies. The plan is also boosting the development of digital skills, both on the workplace and through the education system.
The modified plan's social dimension remains very ambitious, in particular thanks to its flagship healthcare, pension, and long-term care reforms. Investments foreseen in public rental housing, elderly people's housing, medical facilities and educational infrastructure show that Slovenia's recovery and resilience plan is addressing the country's socio-economic challenges and better preparing it for the future.
Next steps
The Council will now have, as a rule, four weeks to endorse the Commission's assessment. The Council's endorsement would allow Slovenia to request €24 million in pre-financing of the REPowerEU funds. Under the RRF, Slovenia has so far received €231 million in pre-financing in September 2021 and €50 million under the first payment disbursed in April 2023.
The Commission will authorise further disbursements based on the satisfactory fulfilment of the milestones and targets outlined in Slovenia's recovery and resilience plan, reflecting progress on the implementation of the investments and reforms.
