BRUSSELS, Feb 21 Reuters The European Union39;s economy is stronger as a result of the recovery fund, set up to drive postpandemic growth, which has boosted jobs, investment and offset some of the impact of the Ukraine war, the European Commission said on Thursday.

Officially known as the Recovery and Resilience Facility RRF, the 723 billion euro 780.84 billion fund, launched in 2021 for a sixyear period has so far disbursed 225 billion euros.

The Commission said EU GDP was 0.4 higher in 2022, when it grew 3.4, than it would have been without the scheme and that by the end of 2026, when the scheme ends, it will have boosted EU GDP by 1.4.

The spending from the recovery fund also reduced the EU39;s unemployment rate by 0.2 percentage points, the Commission said.

Three years into its existence, it continues to support our economic recovery and drives positive change across the EU. We have seen funding for energy efficiency, renewable energy and digitalisation projects like never before, EU Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement.

The fund, unprecedented in its size and in that the EU jointly borrowed for it on the market, was designed to help public investment across the 27 member states as often the first thing to be cut in hard times.

The Commission said that in 2025, the EU public investment ratio was expected to rise to 3.5 of GDP from 0.3 in 2029 and that half of that increase was related to money from the RRF.

When countries in the south and…