France has secured its first tranche of funding from the EU recovery fund, totalling €5.1 billion from the €800 billion fund.

The aim of the financing is to help the bloc recover from the coronavirus crisis, and make the economy greener and more digitalised.

France’s total share of the recovery fund amounts to €39.4 billion in grants, with subsequent payments linked to the introduction of investments and reforms outlined in its proposal to the European Commission, Reuters reports.

“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.

The Commissioner highlighted the digital projects in France’s proposal.

Around a third of the total figure is set to go towards making the economy greener, including the renovation and thermal insulation of public and private buildings such as schools and hospitals, as well as investment in rail transport.

French Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire said of the country’s recovery: “Except for a health setback, we could recover our level of activity before the crisis earlier than expected, at the end of 2021 and not at the beginning of 2022.”

The European Commission is planning to generate as much as €80 billion this year in bonds and EU-bills to finance the initial tranche of payments to countries within the European Union.

Other countries that received their first tranches from the recovery fund this month are Portugal, Luxembourg, Belgium, Greece, Italy, Spain and Lithuania, whereas the Czech Republic received its first tranche in July.