Romania submits fourth PNRR payment request worth EUR 2.62 bln
Romania has officially submitted the fourth payment request under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, or PNRR, worth EUR 2.62 billion. The request includes 62 targets and milestones exclusively from the non-repayable European funds component, according to the minister of investments and European projects, Dragoș Pîslaru, cited by Digi24.
According to the minister, “the implementation of the PNRR is one of Romania’s most important projects, the success of which determines the development of the national economy from multiple perspectives: infrastructure, health, education, environment, digitalization, culture, energy, and energy efficiency.”
Some of the main milestones included in the payment requests are the adoption of project concepts for the rehabilitation of 13 existing dams and for flood protection modernization works; the establishment of one-stop-shop offices for energy advisory services; the listing of a stake of up to 15% of Hidroelectrica shares; the entry into force of the justice laws, an 85% staffing rate of prosecutor positions within the DNA, investments for the digitalization of the judicial system; and others.
Each ministry had to fulfill milestones for the fourth payment request. The Ministry of Health, for example, renovated or equipped more than 2,000 family medicine offices. The Ministry of Labor modernized 50 community day centers for persons with disabilities.
According to the minister of investments and European projects, the response deadline from the European Commission is a maximum of 60 days.
Romania’s first PNRR payment request, worth EUR 3 billion, was sent to the European Commission on May 31, 2022, and approved in September 2022, covering 21 milestones and targets.
On December 15, 2022, Romania submitted the second payment request, worth EUR 3. 22 billion, which was conditional on meeting 51 targets and milestones for the first two quarters of 2022. The request was positively assessed in June 2023.
The third payment request was sent in December 2023, but the payment was made only partially. All related milestones were to be fulfilled by November 28, but Romania did not complete milestone 215, referring to magistrates’ pensions. For now, it is not exactly known whether the funds will be received from the European Commission, given that the Constitutional Court is scheduled to discuss the law on magistrates’ service pensions on December 28.
Romania has been allocated EUR 28.5 billion for the implementation of the PNRR, of which EUR 13.6 billion represents grants and EUR 14.9 billion is in loans.
(Photo source: gov.ro)
