European Parliament Vice-President Victor Negrescu has proposed extending the implementation deadline for projects under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) that are at a certain stage of completion beyond August 2026, so that they could, for example, be eligible for funding from cohesion funds.

Social Democratic Party (PSD) MEP Victor Negrescu, who is the rapporteur for the dossier on the implementation of recovery and resilience plans Europe-wide, voiced regret that there is insufficient support at the European level for extending this mechanism beyond August 2026.

„Currently, we are working on this report, and the perspective I am trying to offer is that mature projects should continue to be funded for a period of time so that they can be completed. Obviously, we want the mechanism to work, and for the available funds to be fully used. Unfortunately, at the European level, there is insufficient support to extend the implementation deadline beyond August 2026. The only solution that can be a compromise is this: to extend the implementation deadline for mature projects that have reached a certain degree of implementation. This is a proposal I made, and I hope the European Parliament will support it and that we can negotiate it with the member states,” Negrescu said on Wednesday evening in Strasbourg, during a briefing for Romanian journalists.

He explained that, to his knowledge, the explanation for the lack of will at the Council level to extend the PNRR is also a legal, bureaucratic one.

„From 2027, we begin the new long-term European budget, where tools similar to the recovery and resilience mechanism can be created. That competitiveness fund could work in the same way. And then, a new budget plan cannot start if they haven’t finished everything they need to complete with these mechanisms and financing tools. It’s not just bad will or opposition from the frugal states, it’s also this bureaucratic mechanism, because if you are already spending money from the future European budget, in the long term, you can’t create another instrument,” Negrescu stated.

The S&D group MEP said that several solutions are being discussed, such as continuing funding through other programmes or through the current instrument.

„Europe borrows, it has a larger loan and annual loans to finance the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, so by 2026 we will already be borrowing. So, if we are going to borrow anyway, let’s borrow for all the mature projects so we can finish them. For example, for one year, for projects that have already started to be implemented. If you’ve built 20% of a hospital, I don’t see why we shouldn’t finish building the hospital, if all the logistical steps have already been taken up to that point. This is what I am thinking about, and I hope there will be support from the member states,” Negrescu said.

Currently, projects that lose funding through the PNRR are not eligible for other European programmes, but the European Parliament is calling for them to be transferable.

„Just as it was possible at the beginning to transfer from the cohesion area to the PNRR, it should also be possible to transfer back from the PNRR to cohesion or other instruments. I am confident that this can happen,” Negrescu added, who is also the European Parliament’s rapporteur for the EU budget for 2025.

AGERPRES