The European Commission is urging the 27 member states to speed up the ratification process of the EU's €750 billion recovery fund, as debate on the issue drags on in several countries and the summer deadline approaches.
"Time is of (the) essence," Johannes Hahn, European Commissioner for Budget, said on Wednesday morning. "Let us not waste this time."
Hahn underlined that the Commission is ready to go to the financial markets "by June" in order to raise the money for the fund, also known as Next Generation EU, and distribute it among member states.
But a procedural step is hampering the fund's roll-out: as of today, only 17 out of 27 member states have ratified the Own Resources Decision, the legislative instrument that enables the Commission to borrow the cash and repay it over the next decades.