The European Commission (EC) argues that Romania has not demonstrated that meeting the decarbonisation targets would put its power security at risk and furthermore warns that the targets set under the Resilience Facility can no longer be revised due to the short time left until the scheme expires, according to Profit.ro.

Romania’s power grid operator contracted a study that it argues justifies deferring the shutdown of several coal-fired power plants behind the targets set under milestone 119a, part of the fix (and final) disbursement request under RRF with a EUR 771 million grant attached. 

The Decarbonisation Law as recently approved by Parliament, subject to promulgation, reportedly breaches the requirements set in milestone 119a and will result in losing the attached grant, the Minister of Investments and European Projects, Dragos Pîslaru, said.

Furthermore, Pîslaru invoked, in Parliament, a technical letter from the European Commission confirming that, following such a law, Romania will no longer be able to submit payment requests for PNRR funds and will face penalties, with the other decarbonization milestone, 114, also being affected in a retroactive manner.

The EC  interprets the official opinion of the European Union Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) on the adequacy study prepared by Transelectrica to mean that the study did not demonstrate that the closure of Romanian coal-fired power plants within the deadlines assumed by the PNRR and decarbonization legislation would endanger Romania's security of energy supply.

Under a different interpretation, Transelectrica recommends "maintaining in operation three lignite-fired units at Rovinari, of which one is in technical reserve, and two units at Turceni, of which one is in technical reserve.

Brussels' position is based on the fact that ACER identified unjustified methodological deviations in the adequacy study, which may lead to the wrong estimation of security of supply parameters, with a significant impact on the results of the study.

However, beyond the adequacy study, the Commission considers that it is no longer possible to renegotiate the PNRR regarding decarbonization milestone 119a, as there is no more time for this, given that the milestone remained unchanged at the July 2026 review, and the implementation of the PNRR ends on August 31, 2026.

(Photo: Martin33 | Dreamstime.com)

iulian@romania-insider.com