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PM Citu: Romania will submit to Brussels PNRR with full sum, 29.2 billion euro
Romania will submit a National Plan for Recovery and Resilience (PNRR) worth the entire allotted sum, 29.2 billion euro, said, on Thursday, Prime Minister Florin Citu, emphasizing that he desires the PNRR to be approved the moment it reaches Brussels.
He mentioned that, at the end of the Government sitting, there were talks about his visit to Brussels regarding the PNRR and the objectives for ministers in the coming weeks, so that they result in the best plan to be presented to the European Commission for approval.
"What were discussions in Brussels about? Firstly, I was there to ensure that we're on the right path with the PNRR, I want a schedule by which it is approved from the moment it is submitted. I presented to the European Commission our objectives in what regards reform, our objectives in what regards the economy and the way in which the PNRR will support in the coming period economic growth and reform," said Citu, after the Government meeting.
The Prime Minister said he assured the head of the European Commission that the current Government in Bucharest will make reforms.
"For that reason, we need a PNRR that supports the reform part. Some of the objectives, some of them easier to achieve, economic growth over EU average, reducing budget deficits and here I had discussions also with Mr. Vice-President Dombrovskis, who I assured that we will remain on the trajectory in the fiscal-budgetary strategy; reducing deficit, we received support from Mr. Vice-President and we will see when the analysis on excessive deficit is published. At the same time, it's important that this PNRR component be included in our strategy and not affect budgetary deficit," said Citu.
The head of the Executive also said that another important component of the PNRR is the loans side, which Romania will assume.
"Another important element that we've discussed - it has a component of loans this PNRR, an important component of loans, component that many countries did not assume completely, but only parts of it. And my role was that to convince the European partners that we have the capacity to use all the money, all 29.2 billion (...) and that we can use this money without jeopardizing the fiscal sustainability or stability of Romania. So, we remain on the same fiscal trajectory, with this threshold of 29.2 billion. The response is clear, firm: Romania will submit a PNRR with the entire sum, 29.2 billion euro to Brussels," Florin Citu added.
He mentioned some of the reforms assumed by the Government.
"Some of the reforms that we committed to through the governing program, through the fiscal-budgetary strategy, through the convergence program and through the PNRR: one of them you know very well - reform of pensions, which will be adopted in the coming period and which has the role of ensuring the sustainability of the pension system in Romania. It's the fiscal reform we kept talking of, which would ensure the increasing of budget revenues, and we also make an optimization of budget spending in the coming years. Here I said again my clear objective to not introduce and not raise taxes. (...) The objective is to have a direct connection between performance and wage and to eliminate the subjective part, the reform of public administration (...), the development or implementation of the National Development Bank and, of course, reforms in what regards reducing carbon emissions, going to green energy and so forth. All of these have been presented and were well received, because for the first time Romania presents a credible plan, a plan which can be applied," said Citu.
The Prime Minister emphasized that the main challenge for ministers in the coming two weeks is to come with detailed technical projects which would be "endorsed" by the European Commission.
"At this moment discussions were on reforms, the large sum, 29.2 billion, and how we split loans in the 2022-2026 period on the priorities that we have in Romania - infrastructure, gas, hospitals and so forth. After that, the ministers, in the next two weeks, must come with the technical support of these projects," Citu also said.