EC withholds EUR 459 mln under Romania's third Resilience Facility disbursement request

The European Commission (EC) disbursed only EUR 351 million out of the money suspended from the third disbursement request under the Relaunch and Resilience Facility while withholding the rest of EUR 459 million for milestones still unfulfilled despite being initially scheduled to be met before the end of 2023, minister of investments and European projects Dragos Pislaru announced.

“The Commission concluded that four important milestones had not been properly resolved”, the minister noted.

The request included a EUR 231 million grant linked to the special pensions reform, out of which EUR 166 million was eventually disbursed.

Another important milestone was setting up the agency aimed at monitoring the state-owned enterprises (AMEPIP) and the governance of state-owned companies, where minister Pislaru said EUR 132 million was disbursed. However, EUR 200 million was withheld due to problems with the appointment of the AMEPIP management, according to Marius Vasiliu – author of Monitor PNRR, former state secretary in the Ministry of Investments and European Projects, as reported by Economedia.ro.

Regarding the milestone regarding state-owned companies in the energy sector, Romania recovered EUR 48 million of the initially suspended money, but lost EUR 180 million.

In the case of the milestone regarding state-owned transport companies, such as CNAIR, CNIR, CFR, Metrorex, and CFR Călători, Romania recovered EUR 4.5 million of the initially suspended money, but lost EUR 15.4 million.

This request was submitted by Romania on December 15, 2023, when the associated reforms should have already been correctly implemented. Subsequently, in May 2025, the European Commission decided to partially suspend some amounts because several reforms had not been satisfactorily implemented. Romania then had a correction period and submitted additional justifications on November 28, 2025.

(Photo source: gov.ro)