Ghinea: Next two days I will be in Brussels for final applied discussions on PNRR

The Minister of Investments and European Projects, Cristian Ghinea, is to conduct, Thursday and Friday, a working visit to Brussels, for the final applied discussions on the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), and will have meetings with the Vice President of the European Commission, Margrethe Vestager, and with the technical teams that are working on PNRR and the future operational programmes. "In the coming two days I will be in Brussels, for the final applied discussions, at the European Commission, on the PNRR. I will meet Margarethe Vestager, the Vice President of the European Commision and with the technical teams that are working on the PNRR and the future Operational Programmes on the part of the Commission. We have many remarkable things in the PNRR already agreed with the Commission. We will remain with a significant allotment for road, as well as for rail, which makes Romania receive by far the highest allotment for transport, compared to other states. The financing of 434 km of motorway through the PNRR is a success of the negotiations with the European Commission, but at the same time it implies a consistent effort to finalize the cost analysis in this phase, before the official adoption of the Plan," the minister wrote on Wednesday, on his Facebook page. He emphasized that PNRR is a plan tailored both towards the needs of Romania, as well as the priorities of economic transformations at the European level. Thus, Ghinea exemplified, we have the largest programme aimed reducing school drop-out, with funds worth half a million euro and the largest reforestation programme. "We are thus repairing systemic problems neglected in the past 30 years: through the PNRR, we will keep poor children in school and restore Romania's forests," the Minister noted. He also emphasized that Romania also has investments in the economy of the future, in digitization, in the robotization of administration, in the microelectronic industry and the green hydrogen industry. Furthermore, financial instruments worth 1.25 billion euro, negotiated with the European Investment Bank, the European Investment Fund and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, money which will come into the economy immediately, plus over 500 million euro in grants for digitizing and technologizing companies. According to a release of the relevant ministry, the visit to Brussels is part of the evaluation and completion process for the PNRR, provided by Art. 19 of the regulations, which says that after official submission, the Commission evaluates the plans using 11 criteria and can ask for clarifications. So far, most components and sub-components of the PNRR reached a form agreed upon with the European Commission. AGERPRES (RO - author: Nicoleta Gherasi, editor: Mariana Nica; EN - author: Razvan-Adrian Pandea, editor: Simona Iacob)