So far, within the POIM call, 24 projects worth 1.16 billion lei have been submitted through the Large Infrastructure Operational Program for the development of intelligent natural gas distribution networks. The projects are under evaluation (administrative verification and eligibility stage).

The submission of projects under this call takes place in two sessions: the first took place between August 17 and October 17, 2020, and the second takes place until December 17, 2020. The POIM call, with a value of 235 million euro (over 1 billion lei), was launched as just about 30% of Romanian households are connected to the gas network, the Ministry of European Funds announced in a press release.

At the same time, the call represents a first step in the implementation of the National Program for connecting the population and non-household customers to the intelligent natural gas distribution system, approved by GEO no. 128/2020. The financing of the Program from European funds will continue in the next programming period, and it will benefit from an allocation of 800 million euro. Thus, the total amount allocated for the implementation of this program reaches 1 billion euro, an amount that will contribute to the recovery of development gaps in comparison to other EU countries.