Romanian opposition warns Resilience projects may lack financing because of problematic reforms

The Romanian government is carrying out the projects to be financed under the Resilience Facility but is slow in implementing the reforms required by the European Commission for the disbursement of funds; therefore, the public administration will be unable to pay its bills to contractors around March next year, according to opposition party USR citing the level of implementation of the targets and milestones.

The last disbursement under the Resilience facility was in September 2023, from Payment Request number 2, while Payment Request number 3 has not yet been approved, and Payment Request number 4 is postponed indefinitely, according to the PNRR Monitor analysis compiled by USR.

In this context, in March 2025, it is possible to have a blockage in the payment of invoices, as shown by the analysis regarding the status of the Plan and the fulfillment of milestones carried out by the Department of Public Policies of the USR, Economedia.ro reported.

The PNRR Monitor analysis shows that the government could not submit the payment request number 4 because it has a series of unfulfilled milestones. Furthermore, there is no final ECOFIN decision on the approval of the third payment.

According to the PNRR Monitor, 15 of the 46 milestones included in payment request number 4 were not met.

The main milestones that were not met according to the requirements of the PNRR regard the adoption of Project Concepts, including feasibility studies, for 13 existing dams (milestone 16); amending and supplementing the current forestry legislation aimed at combating illegal logging and improving forest management (milestone 24); and digitization of at least 60 public health institutions (milestone 158).

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