The European Commission is pondering ways to ease the rules regarding how European Union member-states utilize funds from Brussels that remain unused, according to a report in Politico, as the bloc strives to bridge its competitiveness gap with the US.
Among the changes on the table is, according to the publication, a solution that would allow countries to request Recovery and Resilience Fund cash beyond the August 2026 deadline. The Commission is calling on countries to divert these funds toward strategic investments to be made through the European Investment Bank, which would allow them to move beyond 2026.
In addition, the Commission will allow countries to spend funds faster, provided they agree to align with the EU’s competitiveness doctrine.