Parliament debates over the National Recovery and Resilience Plan

Prime Minister Florin Cîţu has presented before Parliament the National Recovery and Resilience Plan

Leyla Cheamil, 27.05.2021, 14:00

Reforms, investment and a better management of
taxpayer money are the main objectives of the Government, which will be implementing
the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, known as PNRR. Prime Minister Florin
Cîţu on Wednesday presented the Plan in Parliament. The 30 billion Euro allotted
by the European Commission will reach every corner of Romania to recover the
time lost in the last 30 years, the Prime Minister promised. Florin Cîţu said
that Romania will be receiving funds that will be invested particularly in
transport, education and healthcare, also to be used to carry out reforms. The
Prime Minister said guarantees are needed to make sure public funds are not
wasted over the coming period. Florin Cîţu:

This plan or reform won’t cut back on revenues,
pensions and other apocalyptic scenarios. It’s a way of efficiently administering
our present-day budget, of paying higher pensions and salaries by 2030 without destabilizing
Romania’s finances.

PNRR is different from all the other programs run
so far on European funds, Prime Minister Florin Cîţu also said. The Romanian
official said it came in response to the economic fallout of COVID-19 and is
focused on investments and reforms. Florin Cîţu added that investments will be
implemented together with Romanian investors in particular, warning at the same
time that all investment projects must be finalized by 2026, or else the
European funds would be lost. The European Commission is interested in the
sustainability of public salaries and pensions, Liberal leader Ludovic Orban
said in turn. The co-president of the USR-PLUS alliance, Dan Barna, expressed
optimism over the political support and responsibility regarding the Government’s
reforms. The plan has sparked discontent in the ranks of the opposition, who
criticized the document and accused the Government of trying to introduce
austerity measures. The Social-Democratic Party in opposition announced it
would call a no-confidence vote in Parliament. PSD leader Marcel Ciolacu:

Your proposals mean freezing incomes, increasing
the retirement age and taxes for businesses and the population. You consider
yourselves the apostles of transparency, but in fact you’re just the trumpets
of austerity.

The co-president of the ultranationalist party
AUR, George Simion, in turn said that his party’s MPs will support any
no-confidence motion against Florin Cîţu’s Cabinet. On May 31, Romania will be submitting
the plan to the European Commission, and on June 2 it will be officially
published. Bucharest is due to receive €29.2 billion, of which €14.2 billion in
grants and €15 billion as loans. (VP)