National Recovery and Resilience Plans (RRPs) represent an opportunity for EU member states to initiate and fast-track major economy-wide reforms. Green research & innovation is central to achieving key European objectives, including accelerating the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and meeting increased climate ambition.
This briefing uses E3G and Wuppertal Institute’s Green Recovery Tracker data to analyse the research & innovation components of Central and Eastern European RRPs. It finds that many Central and Eastern European member states are going in the right direction by allocating substantial amounts of spending to research & innovation (ranging from 6 to 23% of overall funding). However, a much smaller share of this funding is currently specifically geared towards green research & innovation.
There is a clear opportunity to strengthen green research & innovation measures as further details are defined and the Recovery and Resilience Plans are implemented. The European Commission should work with member states to ensure that a greater share of research & innovation funding goes to areas that would also support the green transition.
