Talks on the NRRP
The Romanian Executive says Romania will meet the European requirements in order to get the money available through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan
Daniela Budu, 15.03.2024, 13:50
The Bucharest government amended, on Thursday, the multi-year budget related to the reforms and investments assumed through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. Also, the Executive took a series of measures for the faster spending of funds from the NRRP, but also for the reorganization of the National Fiscal Administration Agency, in order to improve its ability to collect money to the state budget. The government also adopted a normative act that aims for the European funds from the NRRP to stay as little as possible in the accounts of the Romanian state and to reach the investment sites in the shortest possible time. The Minister of European Projects, Adrian Câciu explains:
“We mainly approve the distribution of the sums due to Romania, under the REPowerEU chapter, and, here, it is very important that 1.2 billion euros will be made available to the households of Romanian citizens this year through vouchers for energy efficiency and vouchers for photovoltaic panels and batteries. And in May we will start the procedure for distributing these support programs for the population.”
According to the minister, also through this redistribution of amounts, agriculture will also have access, for the first time, to the money from the NRRP. As for the information appearing in the public space regarding the blocking of payment request number 3 from the NRRP by the European Commission, due to the non-fulfillment of certain milestones, the minister announced that it is not blocked. The minister has stated that he is having talks with the representatives of the European Commission on the third request for payment within the NRRP, in the amount of 2.7 billion euros, and he expects the successful completion of the process and the entry of the money in the country’s budget.
‘There is nothing blocked. The relationship with the European Commission works very well and I want us to find solutions to carry out all the reforms’, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu also said. In addition, the head of the Government has announced that the reform coordinating ministers will meet, next week, with Celine Gauer, responsible for managing the NRRP at the European level, to analyze the important milestones in payment request number 3. The opposition in Bucharest has announced, recently, that Brussels officials would have objections in particular to the appointments made to the management of energy companies and to the agency that is to monitor state companies.
Out of five payment requests that Romania could submit from the NRRP, according to the calendar agreed with the European Commission, the PSD-PNL government submitted only three and collected the money for only two. Payment request number 3, the last one submitted, also has problems, just like the previous ones, because the benchmarks were not met according to the commitments assumed’, said Cristian Ghinea, coordinator of the Public Policy Department of Save Romania Union. We recall that Romania benefits from a total allocation of around 30 billion euros for the implementation of the NRRP, in the form of grants and loans, which it should use until the end of 2026.(MI)
