Romania will receive part of the funds it requested for the second payment of the EU recovery plan in December, according to Tuesday’s announcement from the European Commission, which said it would freeze €53 million due to two unfulfilled milestones related to the energy sector.
After receiving a first payment of €6.3 billion from the total €30 billion in loans and grants it is set to receive under the EU recovery plan, Romania requested a second payment of €2.8 billion based on 49 milestones and two targets in December.
But after looking at the evidence provided by Romanian authorities, the Commission announced on Tuesday that two milestones related to energy investments were not fulfilled, noting that “important work remains to be done”.
As a result, the Commission froze funds worth €53.36 million and has given Romania six months to fulfil the two remaining milestones.
Following the announcement, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said that Romania will fulfil these milestones “at an accelerated pace”, adding that priority is now to accomplish milestones linked to the next third payment request.
“On Wednesday, we will take another step by voting on the draft law regarding the reform of special pensions in parliament”, Ciolacu said, adding that “this summer, reforms have priority over vacations for government employees”.
Among the reforms Romania must adopt to have its third payment request greenlighted is the special pensions reform.
As a first step towards unlocking EU funds, Romanian lawmakers voted to eliminate their special pensions on Monday and are set to vote on the draft reform on Wednesday.
Past attempts by Romanian authorities to eliminate these pensions were deemed unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court.
(Cătălina Mihai | EURACTIV.ro)
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