Second tranche of Romania’s NRRP, disbursed

Romania received 2.7 billion euros from the European Commission, the second tranche of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.

Sorin Iordan, 02.10.2023, 13:50

At the end of last week, the European Commission transferred 2.76 billion euros to Romania, the second payment request under the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism (NRRP). The European Commission said that the payment was made because Romania fulfilled 49 milestones and objectives related to the second tranche. They cover key reforms in areas such as the green and digital transition – the adoption of the law on decarbonisation and the enforcement of the law on cloud services used in the public sector, Brussels said. At the same time, Romania also presented the reforms to improve the application of public policies, the promotion of tourism and culture, the development of human resources in the healthcare sector, the improvement of tax collection and the sustainability of pensions, the modernization of the education system infrastructure, as well as the consolidation of the independence of the judicial system and of the fight against corruption.

The head of the Bucharest Government, the social democrat Marcel Ciolacu, hailed the Commission’s announcement. He said that the Romanian Government has the duty to manage efficiently and transparently these funds, which are intended for key reforms for the country’s green and digital transition. Ciolacu pointed out that the Romanian Government is now also focusing on completing all milestones and targets related to the third payment request in order to submit it to the European Commission as soon as possible and thus increase the chances of receiving the third installment earlier.

In turn, the speaker of the Senate, Nicolae Ciucă, the president of the National Liberal Party, part of the ruling coalition alongside PSD, said that the wise use of money from Brussels will mirror in the stability of the budget and would have a multiplier effect, leading to the improvement of the living standards of every Romanian. The PNL leader also said that the National Recovery and Resilience Plan contracted by Romania is a complex one and that only for this second payment request, more than 3,000 documents had to be submitted. Payments under the NRRP, a key instrument at the heart of the NextGenerationEU program, are based on performance and depend on Romania’s implementation of the investments and reforms set out in its own plan.

Romania submitted its second payment request to the European Commission in December 2022, and in June 2023 Brussels approved a partially positive preliminary assessment of it, but found that two benchmarks related to energy investment were not satisfactorily met. However, the Commission acknowledged that Romania has already taken measures to fulfill them. Romania’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan will be financed with over 29 billion euros, in grants and loans. The cumulative value of funds received by Romania so far under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, is almost 10 billion euros. (EE)