# Belgium Has Drawn 69 Percent of Its Recovery Money, and the Deadline Is Four Weeks Away

> A fourth payment of 567 million euros landed on 4 August. Denmark took its last instalment on the same day, becoming the first country to finish.

- Source: Belgium Crown
- Canonical URL: https://belgiumcrown.com/article/belgium-nextgenerationeu-fourth-payment
- Author: Luc Vermeiren
- Section: Europe
- Published: 2026-08-05T13:10:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-05T13:10:00.000Z
- Tags: NextGenerationEU, Recovery fund, European Commission, Public finance

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The European Commission paid out 1.86 billion euros under NextGenerationEU on 4 August, split between four countries. Belgium received 567 million euros on its fourth payment request, Bulgaria 896 million on its fourth, Denmark 359 million on its fifth and last, and Slovenia 41 million on its sixth.

The cumulative figures are the ones that carry information. Belgium has now drawn 69 percent of its 5.26 billion euro allocation. Bulgaria is at 68 percent of 6.17 billion. Slovenia is at 87 percent of 2.08 billion. Denmark is at 100 percent of 1.63 billion and is the first member state to complete its disbursements, which is a smaller achievement than it sounds given it had the smallest envelope of the four, and a real one given how few have managed it at all.

What makes the Belgian number worth attention is the calendar sitting behind it. The reforms and investments the money is tied to have to be completed by 31 August, payment requests have to be in by 30 September, and the Commission has to have paid by 31 December. That is the end of the facility, not a staging post. Roughly 31 percent of Belgium's allocation is still undrawn with four weeks left on the first of those three dates.

Belgium's own timeline shows why that gap is not simply slow paperwork. The country submitted this request on 19 December last year and the Commission approved it on 2 July, a little over six months later. Assessment takes as long as it takes, and a request submitted close to the deadline does not become a payment inside the window merely because it was filed on time.

The money is attached to things rather than handed over freely: clean energy and emissions, sustainable mobility and biodiversity, digital modernisation, social inclusion and employment, health systems, and in some countries rule of law and anti-corruption measures. A milestone that slips is not a delayed payment, it is a payment that may not arrive, because the facility closes rather than rolls over.

That is the difference between this fund and the structural money Belgian administrations are used to. Cohesion programmes are forgiving about timing across a long period. NextGenerationEU was built as a one-off with a hard end date, and the last months of it are where the difference between the two designs becomes visible.

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Originally published by Belgium Crown. Free to cite with attribution and a link to https://belgiumcrown.com/article/belgium-nextgenerationeu-fourth-payment.