The Council of the European Union has published a proposal for an implementing decision that would amend Latvia's recovery and resilience plan (RRP), modifying two specific measures while leaving the total financial contribution unchanged at EUR 1,969,244,522. The proposal, dated 30 July 2026, responds to Latvia's reasoned request of 21 July 2026, in which the Baltic state argued that parts of its original plan are no longer achievable due to objective circumstances. The amendment would replace the annex to the Council Implementing Decision of 13 July 2021, which originally approved the assessment of Latvia's plan, and is addressed to the Republic of Latvia under Article 20(1) of Regulation (EU) 2021/241, which established the Recovery and Resilience Facility.
The first measure to be amended, 5.2.1.r, concerns the reform of higher education and scientific excellence and governance under Component 5. The proposal states that the amendment implements a better alternative that still achieves the original ambition of the reform. The second measure, 1.2.1.2.i, aims to increase energy efficiency in business through a combined financial instrument under Component 1. Here, the amendment is designed to reduce administrative burden and simplify the Council Implementing Decision while still meeting the stated objectives. The Commission's positive assessment of the overall RRP remains unaffected, according to the proposal.
This is the first amendment to Latvia's plan since its original approval in July 2021, and no prior coverage of this file exists in the available record. The proposal now moves to the Council for formal adoption, after which the amended plan would take effect. The change is expected to have a moderate impact on stakeholders: for Latvian businesses, particularly those in the energy efficiency sector, the simplified instrument could lower compliance costs and speed up access to financing, while for higher education institutions, the revised reform may alter governance structures but with the same overarching goals. For the European Commission, the amendment does not change the financial envelope, so the fiscal impact on the EU budget remains neutral. National authorities in Latvia will need to implement the revised measures, which could reduce administrative workload but may also require adjustments to existing programmes. The proposal does not alter the total funding, so the overall scale of the RRF support to Latvia remains unchanged, but the reallocation of effort between the two measures could shift the balance of investment towards energy efficiency and away from the original higher education reform design, potentially affecting the pace of implementation in those areas.