Romania obtained, on Thursday, the approval of the revised National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), during the meeting of the Council for Economic and Financial Affairs (ECOFIN), held in Brussels, the Ministry of Finance announced in a statement.
The revised plan has a total value of 21.41 billion euros, of which a major component of grants (non-reimbursable funds), of 13.57 billion euros, and 7.84 billion euros in loans, being configured on six payment requests (of which three have already been submitted).
The number of milestones and targets was reduced from 518 to 390, without diminishing the ambition of the reforms undertaken.
The changes mainly aimed at eliminating investments with a risk of non-implementation, transferring some high-performing projects from the loan component to the grant and introducing new investments with high economic and social impact, such as the capitalization of the Investment and Development Bank or the purchase of ambulances for the DSU, the press release states, according to Agerpres.
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At ECOFIN, Romania is represented by the Minister of Finance, Alexandru Nazare.
“The approval of the revised plan comes after an intense period of negotiation, technical and institutional dialogue with the European Commission. The renegotiation of the PNRR was started over 1 year ago, this being the 3rd Government to hold discussions with the European Commission regarding the aspects related to the implementation of the plan and the renegotiation of allocations. The responsibility and seriousness with which we have conducted the dialogue with the Commission in the last 4 months have led to maintaining the maximum level of grant allocation available to Romania. We managed to agree on a simplified structure of the plan, through which we reduce the pressure on the state budget, by reducing the loan component and ensuring better implementation of the reforms necessary for the competitiveness of the Romanian economy. Romania has so far collected 10.7 billion euros from the PNRR and is set to receive approximately the same amount by the end of next year. The economic recovery is conditional on attracting all the European money we have, both from the PNRR and from cohesion funds,” said Alexandru Nazare, quoted in the press release.
The revised plans of Luxembourg, Belgium, Estonia, Croatia and Slovakia were also approved during the ECOFIN meeting.
The agenda of the Brussels meeting also includes major topics regarding the consolidation of the European economy, including the European Union customs reform and the revision of the Directive on the taxation of energy products and electricity.
“The finance ministers reached an agreement today on the proposal for a regulation on the introduction of a simplified tariff treatment for distance sales and the elimination of the 150 euro threshold for the exemption from customs duties. Romania supported the elimination of the threshold, considering it an essential measure to combat the undervaluation of goods sold online and reduce significant losses of customs duties and VAT revenues,” according to the MF press release.
In turn, Minister of Investment and European Projects Dragoș Pîslaru announced that next week the dashboard with “absolutely all NRRP projects” will be officially launched.
Another important file on the ECOFIN agenda concerned the revision of the Energy and Electricity Taxation Directive (ETD), part of the ”Fit for 55” legislative package.
“European Finance Ministers welcomed the efforts of the Danish Presidency to advance negotiations on a complex file, with discussions showing that the current text still requires adjustments to ensure a balance between climate objectives and economic competitiveness,” according to the cited source.