On Monday 27 September, the European Commission proposed the official approval of Romania’s €29.1 billion recovery plan - including €14.2 billion in grants and €14.9 billion in loans - as part of the Next Generation EU Recovery Plan.
The Romanian recovery plan places great emphasis on the ‘green’ transition, to which it will devote 41% of the overall allocation. The allocation for the digital transition will amount to 21% of the total.
During her visit to Bucharest, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stressed the importance of reforms that will provide Romania with a modernised and more efficient public service, including the digitalisation of the health sector and the creation of a cloud for the Romanian government. She also called for fiscal consolidation, pension reform and the introduction of a minimum income for the most vulnerable.
Mrs von der Leyen invited Romanians to be vaccinated against Covid-19, as the vaccination rate of adults in Romania is one of the lowest in Europe (33% of adults are fully vaccinated).
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis and Prime Minister Florin Cîțu promised that all the investments and structural reforms included in the National Recovery Plan would be implemented in order to change Romania in a profound way. They both stressed the importance of building motorways.
A pre-financing of €3.5 billion will be paid out by the end of the year, Mr Cîțu said.
At this stage, the Commission has already disbursed more than €49 billion in pre-financing to 12 Member States. It is still assessing the plans of five other Member States: Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Poland and Sweden.
Asked about the negotiations on the Hungarian plan, the Commission Deputy Chief Spokesperson, Dana Spinant, was unable to state whether an agreement would be reached by the end of the deadline set for the end of the week. “I cannot say if it will be the case before the end of September”, she said.
Bulgaria and the Netherlands have yet to submit their national recovery plans at European level.
More information on the Romanian recovery plan: https://bit.ly/3kMvZnO (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)