National Recovery and Resilience Plan under debate

Romania carries on negotiations with the EC on the National Recovery and Resilience Plan

Roxana Vasile, 27.04.2021, 13:50

The National Recovery and Resilience Plan, under which Romania may access European funding for development, was discussed on Monday by the right-of-centre ruling coalition, after having been analysed earlier the same day with president Klaus Iohannis as well.

As all coalition leaders underscored, negotiations with the European Commission on this document are ongoing, and the Plan will be submitted at the end of May. The one-month postponement of the submission has to do with both technicalities and political issues in various areas, such as irrigation systems, transport or natural gas infrastructure, which the Commission does not want funded under the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the minister for investments and European funding Cristian Ghinea explained.

He said several other member states will also submit their national plans after the original deadline set by the Commission, 30 April. As the Liberal PM Florin Cîțu said in turn,

Florin Cîțu: “Romania has a number of priorities, and we stand by them, but obviously these priorities must be placed within this system that the European Commission has put together for making these funds available.

Deputy PM Dan Barna (USR/Plus) in turn dismissed the criticism against the ruling coalition, and said there were no mistakes as regards the Plan:

Dan Barna: “Some of the components were found to be quite mature and well designed and will certainly be included in the final version of the document. Some other elements are being discussed these days, and this was the very topic of the talks in Cotroceni with the president.

As for the deputy PM Kelemen Hunor (Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians), he said this is not a matter of Romanias Plan being rejected by the European Commission.

Moreover, the coalition leaders called on the Social Democrats in opposition not to endanger the negotiations with the EC with various statements. Previously, the announcement that the Plan must be altered triggered a downpour of political reactions, mostly, and the most critical of them, from the Social Democrats, who claim the current Cabinet are unable to see this project through. The Social Democrat leader Marcel Ciolacu:

Marcel Ciolacu: “Unless they present this Plan before Parliament, I will ask my colleagues to go on parliamentary strike. We will take part in floor group sessions and committee meetings, but not in plenary sessions.

MEP Victor Negrescu (Social Democratic Party) said some of the projects under the Plan submitted by Romania were rejected by the European Commission and require substantial changes, which is why he called on the Government to open negotiations with social partners, civil society and political parties. (translated by: A.M. Popescu)