Executive summaryOn 21 July 2020, the European Council (the Council) agreed on a recovery plan and the European Union (EU) budget for 2021 - 2027. The agreement reached by the leaders of the 27 Member States was reflected in the Council conclusions (the conclusions) published on the same day, 21 July, and cover:A new recovery instrument worth €750 billion, called “Next Generation EU” (NGEU)The seven-year EU budget (the Multiannual Financial Framework or MFF) of an overall amount of €1,074.3 billion.The conclusions also include agreement to introduce EU-wide taxes and levies to complement the existing own resources and to cover more than half of...