Minister of investments and European projects Dragos Pislaru, in a government meeting on the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) implementation on February 23, required each ministry to send, by the end of the week, updated information on the progress made and a calendar of the activities envisaged, in order to have the most up-to-date status of the implementation. 

Romania must absorb EUR 10.65 billion under the Resilience Facility this year (EUR 7.12 billion in grants and EUR 3.53 billion in loans) under three requests (out of which only one was submitted, in December), which, besides the cohesion funds (some EUR 5 billion), are expected to have a significant contribution to the fiscal consolidation and economic growth.

The EUR 12 billion (3% of GDP) of grants expected under the PNRR and cohesion should allow the government to spend less for investments, out of the national budget, and thus bring the public deficit down from 7.65% of GDP in 2025 to 6.2% this year. However, the co-financing and non-eligible spending are immense, as well – RON 73 billion (EUR 15 billion) as mentioned by a government official during the February 23 government meeting on this topic. 

In the next six months, by the end of August, Romania must absorb almost EUR 11 billion with investment projects completed and reforms carried out on time, based on the calendar agreed with the European Commission, minister Pislaru said in a Facebook post after the meeting.

According to Pislaru, during the ordinary meeting of the Interministerial Coordination Committee of the PNRR, the measures at risk of non-fulfilment were analyzed, and remedial measures were discussed with the institutions responsible for their fulfilment, which were asked for a firm implementation calendar, Economica.net reported.

The co-financing and non-eligible spending for the PNRR projects are significant. 

The Secretary of State in the Ministry of Finance, Florin Zaharia, mentioned that the 2026 budget will provide amounts up to 70% higher than last year, so that the total amounts related to the PNRR will reach approximately RON 73 billion (EUR 14 billion), including co-financing and other ineligible expenses.

Local public authorities will have the largest budgets in history, which will allow them to focus on the implementation of the PNRR projects, added the representative of the Ministry of Finance.

Two disbursement requests are still to be filed in the coming months.

Romania has a total of 6 payment applications, and the last 2 payment applications (5 and 6) will be submitted in 2026, with the final payment application having a maximum submission deadline of September 30, 2026, according to the government’s press release.

Payment application no. 5 will contain 28 targets and milestones related to the non-reimbursable financial assistance component, and payment application no. 6 will have 151 targets and milestones corresponding to both the non-reimbursable and reimbursable financial assistance components.

The 4th payment request was filed last December, in the amount of EUR 2.3 billion (net of pre-financing). 

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Facebook/Guvernul României)