Romania’s Parliament has moved to delay the closure of coal-fired power plants by making shutdowns conditional on replacement generation capacity being commissioned, raising the risk of a breach of commitments under the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).

The Senate adopted the amendments on August 4, with support from the opposition Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR). Minister of investments and European projects Dragos Pislaru warned that the move could trigger penalties and put billions of euros in EU funding at risk.

President Nicusor Dan said he would use his constitutional powers to prevent the amendments from being promulgated if they conflict with Romania’s commitments under the RRF.

“If the Parliament adopts the law in the form approved by the expert committee, I will analyse it with maximum responsibility, and I will use all constitutional prerogatives, including the request for a reconsideration, so that Romania can submit the pending payment demands and not lose billions of euros under the Resilience Facility,” Dan said in a Facebook post following the Senate vote.

Dispute over decarbonisation milestone

Pislaru said the Senate amendments would effectively reverse a decarbonisation milestone under Romania’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) that has already been validated by the European Commission and linked to grants already disbursed.

“We risk the total blockage of the PNRR and the loss of billions of euros in European funds,” Pislaru said, calling the move “an extremely dangerous decision”, according to B1 TV.

The legislation requires coal-fired power plants to remain operational until replacement generation capacity is available. The measure is intended to prevent the loss of generating capacity before alternative sources are commissioned, but conflicts with Romania’s previously agreed timetable for coal phase-out under the PNRR.

The Chamber of Deputies initially tacitly approved the initiative on May 11. The Senate’s legislative brief identified the upper house as the decision-making chamber, meaning its August 4 vote would normally have completed the parliamentary procedure.

However, the legislation was placed back on the Chamber of Deputies’ agenda for August 5 after the two chambers approved different versions. The dispute leaves the measure facing further parliamentary scrutiny as Romania seeks to preserve access to RRF funding.

iulian@romania-insider.com

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