Behind the ‘green recovery’: How the EU recovery fund is failing to protect nature and what can still be saved

Report    |    2 June 2022

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This report prepared by CEE Bankwatch Network and EuroNatur shines a spotlight on the implementation of recovery funds and reveals a series of harmful reforms and investments for biodiversity set to be financed in nine central and eastern European Member States (Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Romania and Slovenia).

The EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) provides Member States with an extraordinary EUR 672.5 billion to deliver a green European recovery. However, rather than using this as an opportunity to protect and restore biodiversity, our analysis of Member States’ recovery spending plans reveals measures that are likely to harm nature.

The report exposes the lack of measures to support biodiversity, harmful projects, the application of the ‘do no significant harm’ principle and the involvement of civil society during the process, as well as outlines what can still be saved.

See the Croatian, Czech, Estonian, Hungarian, Romanian, Polish, Slovenian translation of this publication.