Bucharest has so far received 33% of all funds allocated for Romania’s recovery and resilience plan (PNRR), and of these, it has spent only 20%, said the Minister of Investments and European Projects, Adrian Câciu.
He is not satisfied with this situation. On April 15, he will conduct an evaluation with all reform coordinators.
„We need to make up for some delays in certain areas. Significant progress has been made in recovering delays at the Ministry of Energy, but there are still more. The Ministries of Education and Health are also catching up,” Adrian Câciu stated for Prima News TV station.
„We have switched to a different way of working, we have made the work process more flexible, as it was very rigid when I came. We introduced various mechanisms, including financial ones, to expedite the funds reaching the beneficiaries. The reform coordinators have started working much more diligently. Currently, Energy and Health are champions in contracts. Not to mention the transport ministry, the world champion, with 16 billion euros allocated, having received only 6 billion,” Câciu added.
There are major investments in infrastructure for which Romania has the budget, co-financing, loans from the European Investment Bank, and complementary sources to supplement the PNRR funds.
„At this moment, we have contracts worth 36 billion euros from the PNRR, but the content of the PNRR resource is 21 billion euros,” he further stated.
The Minister specified that „Romania has received 33% of all funds allocated in the PNRR and we have spent 20% of the funds received.”
„9.45 billion euros have entered Romania, and 1.95 billion euros have been spent,” he said, adding that the budget includes another 7.5 billion euros.
When asked if he is satisfied with this percentage, Adrian Câciu replied: „No, and we will have these discussions in the Government. We are scheduled to have the first quite decisive evaluation with all reform coordinators, at the level of the prime minister, in a dedicated session on absorption, on April 15, when we have the budget execution for the first three months, and then we can know how much each has been allocated.”