Romania’s Prime Minister in Brussels
In Brussels Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu held talks on Romania’s budget deficit, its recovery and resilience plan and about the future Romanian commissioner of the EU
Daniela Budu, 23.08.2024, 14:00
The Prime Minister of Romania, Marcel Ciolacu, held talks with the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels on Thursday. High on the agenda were the renegotiation of the country’s National Plan of Recovery and Resilience, known as PNRR, the future agreement on curbing the country’s budget deficit and the Romanian proposal for the future European Commissioner.
Marcel Ciolacu mentioned Bucharest’s request to renegotiate the PNRR, to reduce by 10 percent the loan component and the payment request number 3. Out of the total 76 landmarks only four remained under discussion and one of them was about the ceiling at which a company could be considered a micro-enterprise.
According to the Prime Minister, the ruling coalition in Bucharest must decide whether to lower the ceiling or leave it to the present level, but in this case they have to give up a sum of money from the payment request number 3.
Marcel Ciolacu says that he forwarded during the talks a new agreement regarding Romania’s deficit that should expand over 7 years because, as the Prime Minister says, the biggest investment is expected to take place in the next two years.
Prime Minister Ciolacu also briefed the EU official on investments in the country’s road and rail infrastructures.
“The first Romanian proposal regarding the road infrastructure was to have a sum of 13.7 billion Euros earmarked. The sum eventually approved stood somewhere around 7 billion though. The difference is co-funded by Romanian state, Ciolacu explained.
The Prime Minister reconfirmed in Brussels the proposal that Victor Negrescu, the incumbent vice-president of the European Parliament, become the new Romanian EU commissioner adding that he wishes a relevant economic portfolio for Romania.
However, the formal proposal will be submitted to the Commission in the following days, the Prime Minister says. We recall that several EU countries, including Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Italy, Luxembourg and Portugal have not submitted their proposals for the EU commissioners yet.
Every EU member has been designated a commissioner seat and once sworn in these candidates will be responsible for various portfolios within the Commission.
Governments present their nominees, who are approved by the president of the EU Executive. The nominees are to be heard in mid-September and get European Parliament endorsement in October.
Prime Minister Ciolacu and Ursula von der Leyen also tackled Romania’s accession to Schengen with its ground borders. Marcel Ciolacu described the European Commission president as the “biggest supporter of Romania’s fully-fledged Schengen accession” and voiced his conviction that this accession would happen in the next period.
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