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Statement given recently (12 February 2021) by President von der Leyen at the joint press conference with President Sassoli and Portuguese Prime Minister Costa on the Recovery and Resilience Facility.

Statement by the President: Recovery and Resilience Facility (29.906 kB – PDF)

Thank you very much.

First of all, I would like to congratulate the Council and the Parliament for the final adoption now of the regulation. This is indeed a very historic moment. As you said, António, we are fighting this pandemic and the severe health crisis with the vaccines. The vaccines are our ally and hope.

But we should never forget the second enormous crisis we have, this is the economic crisis. And there, our ally and our hope is NextGenerationEU – EUR 750 billion. EUR 750 billion to support our citizens to keep their jobs, to support companies to stay in business, and to support communities to maintain their social fabric.

And this indeed – NextGenerationEU – is our ally in this fight, and it is our hope in this fight. It is also a unique opportunity for the Member States to work together on our priorities: the European Green Deal, the digitalisation and resilience. NextGenerationEU is more than money. It is a very strong message of solidarity and of trust in the European Union.

Because what is true for the virus is also true for the economy: No Member State on its own would have been able to master this economic crisis just on its own and alone, because our Single Market is so deeply integrated that we have to join forces. And the integration of the Single Market is the basis of our prosperity. So joining forces, enabling the Commission to raise money at the capital market and then together invest it in Europe, that is an act of joint wisdom and an act for trust in the European Union.

Now, indeed we have to honour that trust. So all three of us are calling on all Member States to ratify the Own Resources Decision as fast as possible. And in parallel, of course, we are working intensively to get the national recovery plans ready. So it is time to deliver, indeed.

Click here for the full press release