Management of risks to the fulfilment of milestones and targets of Lithuania‘s Recovery and Resilience Plan

• Lithuania has been earmarked EUR 3.8 billion of EU support to implement the measures of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan "Next Generation Lithuania". To qualify for the funding, 218 milestones and targets must be achieved by 31 August 2026.
• One third of the way through the plan, 92 milestones and targets have been achieved and 10 milestones and targets have been delayed. 5* of the non-achieved milestones delayed the submission of a payment request for the non-reimbursable part of the EUR 477.5 million assistance.
• Failure to achieve the milestones and targets to the planned extent puts Lithuania at risk of not receiving the full funding of the Plan and of not meeting the national progress targets related to the milestones.

An assessment by the National Audit Office shows delays in the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Plan, with milestones and targets not being achieved on time and payment requests not being submitted.

The EUR 3.8 billion financial support will be available until 31 August 2026. Lithuania is committed to achieving 218 milestones and targets by 31 December 2010. The National Audit Office, after assessing the progress made in the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Plan and the risks to the achievement of the milestones for the latest period of the Plan, concludes that some of the targets will not be achieved to the extent foreseen. The targets related to the acquisition of clean vehicles, the installation of public and private charging points, the promotion of the development of a start-up ecosystem, and the encouragement of science and business to participate in international science and innovation programmes. If the targets are not fully met, negotiations are underway with the European Commission to adjust the targets to lower ones or to find alternative ways of their achievement.

"After assessing the riskiness of forty-five milestones and targets, we found that twelve of them will not be achieved to the planned extent, and nineteen may not be achieved on time or may not be achieved in full, thus putting Lithuania at a risk of not receiving the full funding allocated to the Plan and not meeting the national progress targets related to the milestones in the areas of education, science, innovation, and the green transformation," said Auditor General Mindaugas Macijauskas.

With a third of the Plan's implementation time remaining, 93% of the investments have been contracted, but the cost of implementation is below 30% of the funding allocated to Lithuania. This means that at least EUR 2.8 billion, or 74% of the Plan's funding for Lithuania, will need to be invested over the remaining life of the Plan.

10 of the 98 milestones and targets are delayed until the end of November 2024. Failure to meet 5* milestones resulted in a 9-month delay in the submission of a payment request for the third part of EUR 477.5 million of non-repayable assistance.

Two years ago, the National Audit Office identified risks related to 4 unmet milestones in the audit "Achievement of milestones and targets of the Lithuania‘s Recovery and Resilience Plan". Today, the risk of missing out on multi-million-euro support is much higher.