The Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests (MEWF) and the Environmental Fund Administration (EFA) have prepared several scenarios with projects and programs to be financed from the EFA budget, which they will propose to the Ministry of Finance at the beginning of next week, and a response could come in 2-3 weeks, Environment, Waters and Forests Minister Diana Buzoianu said in a press conference on Tuesday.
“Just today we had a meeting with the Environmental Fund Administration to prepare several scenarios that we will propose to the Ministry of Finance. Next week, at the beginning of the week, we will have a meeting with representatives of the Ministry of Finance and I hope we will have an agreement. As I was saying, within a maximum of 3 weeks from the moment the budget is approved, I believe that it is necessary for the AFM budget to be passed, so that we can start making payments. We currently have hundreds of projects that have been moved from the PNRR to the AFM, which currently need payments. We are talking about open construction sites, projects that have started to be implemented, because they had already started on the PNRR, when they were moved they moved along with the start of the works, and there for six months the operators could no longer be paid, so the works have stagnated. It is very important to start these projects. So, I hope that there is – and there is – this common understanding of prioritizing the AFM budget. Obviously, at the moment “When we know what the maximum budget is, we will be able to come up with what projects to include,” Buzoianu said, according to Agerpres.
She assured that the scenarios include programs such as Rabla or battery storage, but their implementation will depend on the amount approved by the Ministry of Finance.
“What I can tell you is that we have scenarios in which we have requested enough money to cover projects such as Rabla, for example, or battery storage, but it depends a lot on the amount that the Ministry of Finance will approve. If they approve an amount that can also cover these projects, we have introduced them. So, we have requested the necessary money for them, now let’s see what it is (the amount – ed.), because the Ministry of Finance also depends a lot on the deficit analysis. The maximum amount that they approve us, obviously, will also go to the deficit area as a calculation, so that the formula that is applied is also taken into account in the analyses that will inevitably reach the European Commission. We must also take into account a balance. I am convinced that the need for the AFM to launch new projects this year will also be understood”, the minister said.
Asked if there is currently a guarantee that the Rabla program will continue, Diana Buzoianu replied: “At the moment there is no guarantee. At the moment there are scenarios that we have submitted and that we support, in which we have also introduced such programs.”
“We will have a guarantee when the budget is passed and we will see that the amount approved by the Ministry of Finance also includes the scenarios that we have put on the table for these projects. I hope that this will happen in a maximum of 2-3 weeks from now,” she added.
The MMAP official admitted that there is currently a great need for a financing program for battery storage systems.
“For photovoltaic panels, we had REPowerEU, which happened last year. We had projects worth billions. We currently need storage systems, because the system, the national grid, can no longer cope with the amount invested in the photovoltaic panel area, and it is very important: all this work that was done by prosumers, including paid for by AFM through the funds that were allocated, must be carried forward. The next step is to help in the storage area, too,” Buzoianu said.