REACT-EU 
Fostering crisis repair
and resilience

1. What is REACT-EU?

The Recovery Assistance for Cohesion and the Territories of Europe initiative, or simply "REACT-EU", constitutes additional EU budget resources financed by the EU Recovery Plan - NextGenerationEU.  REACT-EU provides €50 billion (current prices) of fresh resources to existing cohesion policy programmes in the Member States for the years 2021 and 2022. It aims to bridge the gap between the immediate emergency response in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and its social consequences, and long-term recovery.
REACT-EU will foster crisis repair and integrate the green and digital transitions into the recovery strategy to increase the resilience of the economy. Such measures can quickly address the negative consequences of the outbreak, for example, through investments in energy efficiency, urban greening and digitalisation of schools and businesses. REACT-EU is expected to contribute 25% of the overall financial envelope to climate objectives
Where is the money going? 
You have come to the right place! On this dashboard you can follow the progressive adoption of programmes containing REACT-EU resources by high level cross-cutting themes such as "green economy" and "digital economy", as well as by detailed sectoral investment areas.  

1.1 Designed to reach the real economy

The first payments to national governments from REACT-EU were made on 28 June 2021, making REACT-EU the first instrument to be used under NextGenerationEU.  
The additional REACT-EU funds are primarily channeled through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the European Social Fund (ESF) (including the Youth Employment Initiative - YEI).  Some of the new resources will also be used to top-up the European Fund for Aid to the Most Deprived (see our FEAD page for details). 
To provide the maximum possible assistance to Member States, the conditions for the use of these additional resources have been simplified as follows:
  • National co-financing is not obligatory. The Union budget can cover 100% of the cost if Member States so wish. 
  • Immediate liquidity in the form of an 11% pre-financing will help to ensure a quick roll-out of this support.
  • There is no ex-ante conditionality, nor any requirements for thematic concentration or allocation by category of region.  
  • The scope of support is wide and transfers between the ERDF and ESF are possible.
  • Projects dating back to 1 February 2020 can be retroactively reimbursed.

1.2 REACT-EU Headline figures

As of December 2023, the headline figures on the volume of REACT-EU resources mobilised are as follows;
  • The full amount of EUR 50.6 billion has been programmed through ERDF and ESF (including EUR 686 million allocated to FEAD)
  • Of the total allocated amount, EUR 18.2 bn have been payed out to the Member States (with a further EUR 213 million for FEAD)
That figure includes the thematic investments below:
  • EUR 12.8 billion of ESF allocated in support of labour market measures
  • EUR 8.1 billion of ERDF allocated in support of enterprises and business development;
  • EUR 7.8 billion of ERDF allocated in support of healthcare systems;
  • EUR 8.5 billion of ERDF allocated in support of the green transition, of which EUR 6.5 billion specifically target climate action;
  • EUR 3.1 billion of ERDF allocated for digital economy;
The text above will be updated on a regular basis to reflect the evolving data below.  Bookmark this dashboard and check back for updates!

The interactive charts and the underlying open data below are updated daily powered with #ESIFOpenData.

2. REACT-EU Finances

2.1 Planned and decided EU amounts

REACT-EU is not a new fund, rather it is additional EU funding from NextGenerationEU to top-up existing cohesion policy programmes funded from ERDF, ESF (including YEI) and FEAD.  The total funding of EUR 50.4bn available for Member States is divided in two tranches - the majority was available for programming in 2021 (€39.6 billion) and the rest in 2022 (€10.8 billion).  The Member States will be able to spend these resources until the end of 2023. 
The chart below shows the cumulative amount available per country (2021 and 2022 tranches) and the amount so far decided (the data is updated daily to reflect the most recent decisions).  

2.2 Decided EU amounts by Fund

The chart below presents the adopted REACT-EU allocations formalised from the EU budget under the ERDF and ESF.
TIPS:
- The drill up/down functions (top left of the chart) allows users to see the aggregate by Member State or by specific programme (click on the bars to drill down);
- The filter function (top right of the chart) allow users to select single areas of interest - by EU fund, Member State or programme. 
Notes:
1. The total amount decided under REACT-EU shown on this dashboard includes technical assistance (TA) allocations. The REACT-EU total shown here is therefore marginally higher than the total shown on the main ESIF Open Data theme page for REACT-EU (without TA).
2. REACT-EU may also contribute to FEAD - the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived. To see decided FEAD allocations visit the FEAD open data page.  (The complete amounts decided by Member States and fund are shown in this chart.)

2.3 EU payments made 

REACT-EU was the very first instrument of the NextGenerationEU to make payments to the Member States. On 28 June 2021, 16 Member States received the first EUR 800 million as initial and annual pre-financing. 

Types of payments:
  • Initial pre-financing - for REACT-EU, the pre-financing rate is established at 11% which is paid out to the Member State, usually within a week or two after the approval of the programme. This liquidity helps to kick-start the projects on the ground. Note that following the Russian aggression of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, the pre-financing rate from REACT-EU was increased to 15% to all Member States, but to 45% to the most affected Member States. Read more about it here.
  • Annual pre-financing - annual installments of 0,5% of the total amount allocated to each programme that are paid every year to the Member State before 1 July.
  • Interim payments - cost-based payments which are disbursed to the Member State on the basis of payment applications linked to the approved projects.
The interactive chart below presents the latest data on payments interactively by country, EU fund and programmes. It is updated daily. 

2.4 Other views on finances 

  • This interactive chart compares the EU support to national co-financing among Member States as Member States usually finance a part of their own programmes to complement the EU funds. However, due to the emergency situation, REACT-EU was designed to allow 100% EU financing of the cost of eligible projects, with no national co-financing required.  Member States might choose not to use this option as part of a broader national strategy. 
  • In this interactive chart you can explore the number of programmes that have received ERDF or ESF reinforcement under REACT-EU, showing the scope of the exercise at national and regional level.

3. Planned REACT-EU support to the green and digital transitions

In this section, we regroup the overall REACT-EU financial allocations by cross cutting theme to answer different questions.  The main goals of REACT-EU are to render the economic recovery green and digital, with a concrete contribution to climate objectives.
The high-level themes "green economy" and "digital economy" are cross-cutting throughout different investment areas (for example, "intelligent energy systems" are both digital and make a climate contribution through energy savings).  As a result there is some overlap in the charts below.  The data on the sectoral investments and detailed themes is presented in section 4 below.
Applying the "global filter"
Filters by EU fund, Member State(s) or programme are available below. 
If selected the filters will apply to all charts in Sections 3 and 4.  

3.1 Investments towards a green transition

This section looks at two different ways that cohesion policy contributes to the greening of the economy. First, we look at all investments related to the green economy and second, we look at specific actions targeting climate change. The latter investments represent a limited set of possible actions which are weighted at either 100% or 40% based on their contribution to climate objectives (find out more about climate tracking here). As a result, investments in "green economy" represent a broader scope than the more targeted measures for climate change actions.
The interactive chart below shows the value of green investments under REACT-EU.   
Specific climate actions
REACT-EU is expected to contribute 25 % of its resources to climate-related investments at EU-level.
Given the thematic scope of the EU funds, there are a wider range of climate action investments possible under the ERDF, as it supports a variety of relevant infrastructures and actions.  By contrast,  climate action through ESF can mainly be linked to training for green skills and jobs, i.e., skills that will be useful for jobs in environmentally-focused sectors.
ERDF climate tracking
ERDF climate tracking applies weightings of 100%, 40% or 0% to the EU amounts allocated to different "intervention fields".  The chart across shows the sum of all ERDF funds allocated so far (left) and the share of ERDF that is related to climate action (right).
Tips:
- Use the drill up / down button (top left of chart) to compare by country and programme;
- Use the filters (top right of chart) to select a specific country or programme(s)
For more information on the contribution of each intervention field to climate action, see Annex I of Commission Implementing Regulation No 215/2014 and this datastory. The ESF climate tracking tool is under construction.

3.2 Investments towards a digital transition

Digitalisation has become indispensable, not only for the professional sphere of our lives, but for the private and social spheres as well. Digitalisation is a recurring theme in all investment areas, cutting across different sectors and occupations.  The chart below presents the ERDF allocations to digitalisation. 

4. EU support to the main sectoral investment areas

This section breaks down the intervention areas by 6 major categories - healthcare, business support, energy, environment, research and innovation and  public services, including investments in public tourism and culture assets. These investment areas are not exhaustive, the full REACT-EU financial allocations underpinning the interactive charts below is available under section 4.3. below or by accessing the dataset directly here.
TIP: sort by "Dimension" to explore more in detail the specific actions under each heading or click on the coloured bar of a Member State to see specific actions ("dimensions") at national level.

4.1 Main areas of support under ERDF

Healthcare
Business Support
Energy
Environment
Research and Innovation
Public services, including support for tourism and culture

4.2 Main areas of support under ESF

The European Social Fund (ESF) is benefitting from the top-up resources provided by REACT-EU. ESF measures are planned to help job seekers and preserve jobs, advance education and skills and promote the social inclusion of people in vulnerable situations.
Labour market measures
Social inclusion
Education and training 


4.3 Explore intervention fields in detail

The charts above in section 4.1 and 4.2 show filtered views of the EU allocations made to the different actions captured by intervention fields or "dimensions". Filter the chart to your needs or explore different intervention fields using the tips below. 
TIPS:
-  Expand the chart to full screen by clicking on "view source data". 
-  Click, hold and drag the graph to see the full list of intervention fields; 
-  Use the filter bar in the top right corner of the chart to filter and see the specific actions per member state or by fund;
-  By clicking on a specific bar or using the filter options in the drill up / down / reset buttons (top left side of the graph) you can compare allocation planned by Member State
The full list of available intervention fields and respective codes can be found in Annex I of Commission Implementing Regulation No 215/2014

5. Expected achievements - under construction

Each time REACT-EU resources are added to a programme, the Member State and the Commission agree indicator targets for achievement. These targets are set using three main types of indicators:
  • ERDF common indicators;
  • ESF common indicators;
  • COVID-19 indicators and other programme-specific indicators.
The Commission published the REACT-EU common indicator target values agreed during 2021 using the ERDF/ESF common indicators on the REACT-EU thematic page .  
The list of COVID-19 specific indicators and targets are published daily with the values from recently adopted programmes providing additional information on the expected achievements of the REACT-EU investments (see the data stories below).  
An overview of the COVID-19-specific actions following the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiatives (CRII/CRII+) in 2020 is provided in this Cohesion Policy Coronavirus Dashboard.
An aggregated overview of all COVID-19 actions through REACT-EU and CRII/CRII+ using the Coronavirus "common" indicators is provided in this Overview of cohesion policy coronavirus indicators.  

6. More information

The REACT-EU national allocations were decided in the following acts:
REACT-EU is delivered under the rules and reporting requirements for the ERDF and ESF for 2014-2020. In that context, annual reporting and more frequent financial reporting allow the Commission to report on progress. On the REACT-EU thematic page the following additional information is available:
  • Financial information on progress in implementation; 
  • The common indicator targets adopted to the end of 2021 (data on the progress towards the indicator targets is planned to be published in December 2022). 
The detailed open data of REACT-EU financial allocations underpinning the interactive charts is available here
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Contact
Authors: Luize KURME, John WALSH
Date of text: last revised December 2023 (first published 28 June 2021)