diff --git a/src/org/rascalmpl/library/util/PathConfig.java b/src/org/rascalmpl/library/util/PathConfig.java
index a76fb5661a7..135e929bafd 100644
--- a/src/org/rascalmpl/library/util/PathConfig.java
+++ b/src/org/rascalmpl/library/util/PathConfig.java
@@ -635,8 +635,13 @@ private static ISourceLocation setTargetScheme(ISourceLocation projectLoc) {
      */
 	private static IList getPomXmlCompilerClasspath(ISourceLocation manifestRoot) {
         try {
+            String mavenDependencyPlugin = "org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-dependency-plugin:3.8.0";
+            // First, make sure that maven-dependency-plugin is downloaded when not available
+            Maven.runCommand(List.of(mavenDependencyPlugin + ":do-nothing"), manifestRoot);
+
+            // Now, actually let maven build the classpath. Note that this is in offline mode as to not download any dependencies
             var tempFile = Maven.getTempFile("classpath");
-            var mavenOutput = Maven.runCommand(List.of("-o", "org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-dependency-plugin:3.8.0:build-classpath", "-DincludeScope=compile", "-Dmdep.outputFile=" + tempFile.toString()), manifestRoot, tempFile);
+            var mavenOutput = Maven.runCommand(List.of("-o", mavenDependencyPlugin + ":build-classpath", "-DincludeScope=compile", "-Dmdep.outputFile=" + tempFile.toString()), manifestRoot, tempFile);
 
             // The classpath will be written to the temp file on a single line
             return Arrays.stream(mavenOutput.get(0).split(File.pathSeparator))