France on Thursday secured its first tranche of money amounting to 5.1 billion euros ($5.96 billion) from the 800-billion-euro EU Recovery Fund aimed at helping the bloc bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic and make its economy greener and more digitalized.
France's total share of the Fund is 39.4 billion euros in grants, with future payouts tied to the implementation of investment projects and reform measures set out in its proposal to the European Commission.
"France's recovery and resilience plan is clearly oriented towards the green transition, financing a wide range of projects from building renovations to clean mobility," Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said in a statement.
He singled out the digital projects in France's proposal.
The Commission aims to raise up to 80 billion euros this year in bonds and EU-Bills to fund the first tranche of disbursements to EU countries.
Portugal, Luxembourg, Belgium, Greece, Italy, Spain and Lithuania also received their first tranches from the recovery fund this month. The Czech Republic got its first tranche in July.
