Governing the RRF : drafting, implementing, and monitoring national recovery and resilience plans

Abstract

In addition to its remarkable financial envelope, the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) also marks an important qualitative step forward in EU governance, as it introduces a new "demand-driven and performance-based" governance design. The RRF introduces a number of novelties compared to existing EU economic governance and ensures a better link between investments and reforms, thus putting meat on the bones of the Semester’s country-specific recommendations (CSRs). As such, it acts as an amplifier of economic transitions in member states and is generally considered to be a game changer in terms of impact. At the same time, performance-based financing is not new and has been heavily criticised in other settings, both domestic and international, in terms of both its efficiency and effectiveness. Performance-based financing with fixed milestones and targets may also lead to difficulties in coping with unanticipated implementation problems and changes in external circumstances. In this study, we assess the effectiveness and legitimacy of the RRF’s design, by analysing its practical functioning during the drafting, implementation and monitoring of the National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRPs) in eight member states (Belgium, Croatia, Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain) together with a number of contrasting "shadow" cases already described in the literature. More specifically, we assess the extent to which governments took ownership of the plans, the inclusivity of their drafting and the role of the European Commission in steering the process. On implementation and monitoring, we assess how RRF governance has affected domestic policy-making; what obstacles have arisen in the implementation process and how monitoring by the Commission works in practice, with particular attention to its interpretive flexibility and administrative load. The study is based on extensive documentary analysis and supporting interviews with key officials involved in drafting, implementing and monitoring the plans.