High-level fumbles on the NRRP. Prime Minister Ciucă announced in March that all 24 targets had been met, but an official government document from May shows that only 22 targets have been reached 

Romania is in a race against the clock to submit the first reimbursement request to the European Commission for funds from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), but in order to receive the money, it must meet the first 24 targets. Within the government, different positions have emerged on the status of the projects.

Thus, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă announced as early as 31 March, in a Facebook post, that Romania had achieved all 24 targets and milestones: „all 24 targets and milestones of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan assumed for the first quarter of this year are met in terms of the Government’s responsibility. It has been a team effort. Thank you to everyone involved!”

Except that an official government document, the Convergence Programme 2022-2025, adopted by the government on 4 May, contradicts Prime Minister Ciucă’s version and shows that only 22 targets have been achieved.

„The European Commission carried out the first official mission to monitor the milestones and targets assumed by Romania in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), during which the MIPE, together with the reform and investment coordinators, presented the state of achievement of the targets, both for 2021 and for the first two quarters of 2022. Romania has met 22 out of 24 milestones set out in the PNRR. The remaining two are being met at the Ministry of Research, Innovation, and Digitisation, related to the government cloud. In this regard, in February 2022, the PNRR Monitoring Committee was set up as an inter-institutional body with a role of consultation, information, and debate,” reads the official document on the website of the General Secretariat of the Government.

The first reimbursement of the funds spent depends on Romania achieving the targets it has set itself. Our country had an initial allocation of €29.2 billion through the NRRP, of which €14.2 billion were non-reimbursable grants. However, Romania will receive €2 billion less because its economic performance in 2021 was better than forecast.