EC closer to lifting suspension of Resilience payments of EUR 37 million for Romania

The European Commission recently issued a positive preliminary assessment to lift the suspension of payment of EUR 714 million to Portugal, and EUR 37.2 million to Romania after acknowledging the progress made in implementing their respective Recovery and Resilience plans.

This comes after earlier suspensions, where the Commission had found that certain milestones and targets had not been satisfactorily fulfilled in Portugal‘s third and fourth payment request and Romania's second payment request.

The EC had found that two specific milestones in Romania's second payment request had not been satisfactorily fulfilled. This led to a withheld amount of EUR 53.4 million. Specifically, in June 2023, milestone 129, related to green hydrogen production capacities, along with milestone 133, concerning investment in less carbon-intensive heat generation facilities, were initially deemed as not satisfactorily met.

The suspension mechanism allowed the country to receive a partial payment for the milestones and targets that had been satisfactorily fulfilled while giving it additional time to meet the remaining outstanding requirements. Making use of the extended timeframe, Romania implemented a series of effective actions, which have accelerated the decarbonization of its industry.

The Commission concluded that milestone 133 is now satisfactorily fulfilled. Accordingly, it now proposes to unlock EUR 17.8 million corresponding to this milestone.

Concerning milestone 129, the EC notified Romania that it continued to consider the milestone as not entirely satisfactorily fulfilled while recognizing the progress made in its completion. Romania now has two months to send further observations to the Commission, after which the release of the outstanding amount related to milestone 129 may still be decided.

Romania's overall Recovery plan, amounting to EUR 28.5 billion in grants and loans, encompasses a series of reforms and investments to strengthen its economy.

The Commission has disbursed over EUR 9.41 billion to Romania, which corresponds to 33% of all the funds in the Romanian plan, with 14% of all the milestones and targets in the plan fulfilled.

(Photo source: Iftode | Dreamstime.com)