The evaluation announced on Tuesday by the European Commission marks an important step towards unlocking the third tranche of financing from the PNRR, the Minister of Investments and European Projects, Marcel Boloş, told AGERPRES.

„This evaluation marks an important step towards unlocking the third tranche of financing. It is the result of efficient technical collaboration between our team and European Commission experts, with significant efforts being made to continue accelerating the implementation of the PNRR and to ensure a constant flow of resources for the reforms and investments undertaken by the Government,” Marcel Bolos conveyed.

The European Commission announced on Tuesday that it has issued a positive preliminary assessment of the key milestone of Romania’s third payment request regarding the reduction of the special tax regime for micro-enterprises. On the other hand, the Commission found that milestone 215 („Entry into force of the legislative framework for the reduction of special pension expenditure”) is not met at this stage.

At the same time, the EC announced that it is activating the „suspension of payments” procedure, as outlined in the MRR Regulation. This procedure gives Romania more time to meet these outstanding milestones, while receiving partial payments for milestones that have been successfully completed.

So far, 68 out of 74 milestones and targets have been positively assessed under this call, which amounts to €2 billion (without pre-financing) under the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the central element of NextGenerationEU.

Romania’s third payment request includes key milestones in 37 reforms and 17 investments aimed at generating positive changes for citizens and businesses, with a focus on the green and digital transitions, sustainable transport, energy renovation, taxation and pensions, the business environment, urban mobility, tourism and culture, healthcare, social reforms, good governance, education, as well as water and forest waste management.

Milestone 215 („Entry into force of the legislative framework for reducing expenditure on special pensions”), considered unmet, is added to five other milestones in Romania’s third payment request, which the Commission assessed as unmet in its communication of 15 October 2024.

These milestones include investments in the modernization of the railway infrastructure and the development of the underground transport network in Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca, as well as reforms for performance-based management in the transport sector, improving the corporate governance of state-owned energy companies, and operationalizing corporate governance policies for state-owned enterprises.

The Commission has transmitted its positive preliminary assessment of the milestones and targets achieved to the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC), which has four weeks to give its opinion.

At the same time, the Commission informed Romania of the reasons why it considers milestone 215 not met. Romania has one month to submit its observations to the Commission. After receiving the CEF opinion and examining Romania’s observations, the Commission will adopt a payment decision, triggering the payment to Romania. If the Commission, after examining Romania’s observations, maintains its assessment that certain milestones are not met, part of the payment will be suspended.

The suspended amount will be determined by applying the Commission’s methodology for payment suspensions (set out in Annex II to the Communication published on 21 February 2023), which applies to all Member States. From that moment on, Romania will have a period of six months to meet the outstanding milestones. At the end of this period, the Commission will assess whether these milestones have been satisfactorily met. If so, it will lift the suspension and make the payment of the suspended amount.

Minister Marcel Bolos declared at the end of January, in an interview with AGERPRES, that Romania risks losing 1.76 billion euros if the outstanding milestones in request 3 are not met, of which 660 million euros from the milestone with special pensions.

„We had another 330 million euros suspended for the micro-enterprise milestone, which at the end of last year had, through Ordinance 156, the measures to gradually reduce the tax threshold for micro-enterprises, from 500,000 to 250,000, starting with January 1, 2025, and 100,000 euros, starting with January 1, 2026. And, of course, the other milestones, namely the one regarding special pensions, which was reactivated in a certain way due to the irreversibility of the milestones, and for this, on February 4, we are waiting for the decision of the Constitutional Court regarding military pensions. And another problem, also on this milestone, is the decision of the Constitutional Court for the taxation of the non-contributory part of magistrates. And here, too, we are waiting for the decision to be published „Constitutional Court, let’s see what are the unconstitutional elements regarding the taxation of magistrates’ pensions. From this point of view under discussion, there are another 660 million euros on this milestone, namely the one with special pensions,” explained the Minister of Investments and European Projects at the time.

The European Commission (EC) approved on 15 October a positive preliminary assessment of the six targets and 62 out of the 68 milestones related to Romania’s third payment request worth two billion euros (without pre-financing) under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the central element of the NextGenerationEU programme.

The Commission found that, at that stage, six milestones had not been achieved, concerning reforms of the governance of state-owned enterprises, as well as investments in the transport sector and a reform of the tax regime for micro-enterprises.

In this context, the European Commission proposed the partial suspension of the payment in accordance with Article 24(6) of the MRR Regulation.

Romania’s Recovery and Resilience Plan includes a wide range of investment and reform measures. The plan will be financed with 28.5 billion euros, of which 13.6 billion euros in the form of grants and 14.9 billion euros in the form of loans.

AGERPRES