Romania's Government discussed in the first reading and published for debate the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), which includes investments worth EUR 41.4 billion to be financed under the European Union's Recovery and Resilience Facility.

The funds account for 141% of the EUR 30 bln allocated to Romania (soft loans and grants) under the Facility to use the whole budget after the projects that fail to qualify are eliminated during the negotiation process.

The program was criticized for what it does not include (more details) and not fleeting the European Union's guidelines (insufficient money directed to green projects and digitization).

The small and medium-sized enterprises' association (CNIPMMR) also noted a significant decline in the funds dedicated to SMEs.

"The perception is that the Government is forcing investments in road infrastructure, hospitals and building rehabilitation, water and irrigation, under the two keywords: green and digitization," Ziarul Financiar daily notes.

The minister of European investments and projects, Cristian Ghinea, previously admitted that there was a discrepancy between the European Union's drive towards "green" and digitization projects and Romania's needs for basic, traditional infrastructure: motorways, railways, hospitals, and schools.

He recommended local administrations to come up with projects that could qualify for the two ideas ("green" and digitization) since the central Government will come up with transport infrastructure projects.

Regarding the distribution of the money under PNRR, more than one-third of the money is directed towards the "Green transition" pillar: EUR 15.3 bln - which includes EUR 5 bln for railway and urban mobility and EUR 4 bln for water and sewage projects, land amelioration and fighting air pollution, Hotnews.ro reported.

Another EUR 8.8 bln is earmarked for the "Smart growth" pillar - out of which more than half (EUR 4.5 bln, over 10% of the extended budget, and 15% of the actual budget) should go into motorways.

Just over EUR 4 bln should go to "Digital transformation" out of which EUR 2.6 bln for public digital infrastructure and subsidies for big IT projects and EUR 780 million for digitizing the education sector.

Nearly EUR 5.2 bln is dedicated to social projects (Social and regional cohesion" pillar) - but out of this, EUR 4 bln should be managed by the local administrations, and the PNRR doesn't detail the projects.

Another pillar, dedicated to health and social measures ("Health and economic, social and institutional resilience"), is allocated EUR 6.5 bln, out of which EUR 5 bln for "increasing the access to health services" (EUR 3 bln) and "improving the school infrastructure" (EUR 2 bln).

Another EUR 13.3 bln is earmarked for youth, including EUR 370 for nurseries and EUR 636 mln for reducing school dropout. 

(Photo: Antonyesse/ Dreamstime)

iulian@romania-insider.com