End of the line for Romania’s Recovery and Resilience Plan
August 31 was the deadline for meeting the reform and investment commitments assumed by Romania through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR)
Mihai Pelin, 01.09.2026, 14:00
Romania’s Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) has reached the end of the line. Up until the very last day, there were final project sign-offs and normative acts adopted in the Government meeting to secure as many assumed commitments and fulfilled milestones as possible. In Târgu Mureș, the new Cardiovascular Surgical Center at the Heart Institute was inaugurated, and on the A7 Moldova Motorway (north-east), another segment of nearly 50 kilometers was opened to traffic.
Major investments will remain in Romania, states interim Liberal Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan:
“These are important projects in major infrastructure—meaning modernized and electrified railways, Romania’s hospital network, and numerous projects related to the quality of education in schools across the country, in almost all county seats. Most of the modernized schools have been equipped and rehabilitated with appropriate, latest-generation infrastructure. There are also many energy efficiency projects for local authorities that they have successfully completed”.
Ilie Bolojan said that PNRR funding amounted to €13.5 billion in the grant component, meaning non-repayable funds, and approximately €7 billion in the loan component, a portion gradually reduced to minimize the risk of losing European money as much as possible. Nevertheless, substantial funds were lost, for example, €770 million for missing the public sector wage reform, or nearly €100 million for incomplete measures in the field of decarbonization. The head of government explained that, due to delays in building new production capacities, replacing coal-fired power plants was impossible.
In the coming days, evaluations and checks are being conducted, after which the authorities will present exact figures, the interim prime minister stated. In his view, the implementation of PNRR was affected by delays and problems that surfaced right from the initial stages of the program. He also noted that Romania renegotiated a series of milestones over recent years and reduced the scope of certain commitments. Out of more than 15,000 assumed investments, nearly 4,500 projects remained unfinished or unaccepted.
Compared to the rest of the EU, Romania sits at the bottom of the rankings regarding the percentage of money actually collected from the PNRR, managing to secure only about 61% of its total revised allocation. The absolute champions in securing PNRR funds are Spain and Italy, which drew down 90 to 100% of their allocated funds. They are followed by Portugal and Greece with an absorption rate of 80 to 85%. Most EU states obtained around 70 to 75% of the funds initially allocated, while Poland obtained over 65% of the money, sharply accelerating its funding requests in the past year. In this entire context, Romania, positioned at the bottom of the rankings, is surpassed only by Bulgaria, which obtained just 53% of its PNRR funds due to severe political instability. (VP)
