Technical support instrument for implementation of reforms – Council confirms provisional agreement with Parliament

EU ambassadors today confirmed a provisional agreement reached with the Parliament yesterday on a new 'Technical Support Instrument' that will help member states to implement reforms.

The instrument is a successor to the current Structural Reform Support Programme (SRSP) coordinated by the Commission. It will ensure that the Commission can continue to provide tailor-made expertise on the ground and support member states in improving their institutional and administrative capacity to develop and implement growth-enhancing reforms.

The programme will have a budget of €864 million over the period 2021-2027 (in current prices).

During the negotiations, the Council and the Parliament have increased the complementarity between the instrument and the Recovery and Resilience Facility that will provide large scale financial support for public investments and reforms in order to foster member states' recovery from the COVID-19 crisis. The instrument will now support member states, in particular, in the preparation and implementation of their recovery and resilience plans.

The co-legislators have also agreed to provide member states the possibility to finance the instrument through additional contributions.

The Parliament and the Council are expected to adopt the regulation establishing a Technical Support Instrument after legal-linguistic revision in early 2021.