On Tuesday, 24 May, the European Commission and Romania signed the first-ever agreement on creating a ‘Member State compartment’ under the InvestEU programme, which has taken over from the ‘Juncker Plan’ for investment during the 2021–2027 period (see EUROPE 12674/8).
The ‘Member State compartment’ allows Member States and regional authorities in that EU country to allocate a share of the resources from the InvestEU programme to projects addressing market failures in vulnerable and isolated geographical areas.
Under this agreement, Romania will channel part of the financial assistance allocated to the Romanian recovery plan under the NextGenerationEU recovery plan to its ‘Member State compartment’ of the InvestEU programme. According to the European Commission, such an approach will unlock €700 million in additional funding under InvestEU, which could attract at least €2.5 billion in investments aimed at increasing the competitiveness of Romanian SMEs and improving the energy efficiency of buildings in Romania. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)