Romania submitted on Friday a request to the European Commission to amend its National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) and to add a new chapter on REPowerEU, which aims to strengthen the Union's strategic autonomy by diversifying energy supply and increasing the EU's independence and security of energy supply.According to a press release from the EU executive, the chapter on REPowerEU proposed by Romania covers two new reforms and six new investments, as well as a reinforced measure already in the plan. The reforms and investments in this chapter are related to increasing green energy production, improving the energy efficiency of buildings and strengthening the skills of the green energy workforce.The amendment to the plan proposed by Romania foresees the removal of four investments from the initial plan and the modification of about 70 measures.Romania's request to amend its plan is based on the need to take account of high inflation in 2022, supply chain disruptions and the downward revision of its maximum grant allocation under the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism (RRM) from EUR 14.2 billion to EUR 12.1 billion. This revision is part of the June 2022 update of the RRM grant allocation key and reflects Romania's comparatively better economic performance in 2020 and 2021 compared to the initial forecast.Romania has requested the transfer of its share of the Brexit adjustment reserve, amounting to EUR 43.2 million, to the NRRP. Together with the grants provided to Romania through the RRM and REPowerEU (EUR 12.1 billion and EUR 1.4 billion respectively) and the RRM loans already committed under the original plan (EUR 14.9 billion), these funds bring the value of the amended plan presented to almost EUR 28.5 billion.The Commission will now assess whether the amended plan continues to meet all the assessment criteria set out in the RRM Regulation.If the Commission's assessment is positive, the EC will present a proposal to amend the Council Implementing Decision to take account of the changes to the Romanian plan.Member states will then have four weeks to approve the Commission's assessment.
Participation in cultural education activities continues to be limited, with the main barriers being difficult access, insufficient knowledge, and cost, the recently released Cultural Consumption Barometer 2024 shows. The report showed that many Romanians still associate culture with entertainment rather than with personal development or furthering their knowledge. The need for relaxation dominates in cultural […]
Roughly 84% of Romanians say that the pace of the state’s digitalization is slow or very slow, according to an Edge Institute & AtlasIntel study presented at the Digital Governance Summit 2025, which took place on Tuesday, November 25, at the presidential palace in Bucharest. The survey aims to capture the way citizens relate to […]
Romania’s Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) issued a negative opinion on the new bill regarding magistrates’ pensions. The move is only the latest development concerning a heated issue that led to tensions between the executive and the judiciary branch. CSM’s opinion is consultative, and the government led by Ilie Bolojan can still take responsibility for […]
Romania took the presidency of the Central European Initiative (or CEI) on Wednesday, November 26, according to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE). The organization is a regional intergovernmental forum established in 1989, following the fall of the Berlin Wall. It gathers 17 Member States in Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern Europe […]
Trade between Romania and Poland continues to grow, with annual bilateral exchanges in goods now valued at more than EUR 12 billion, according to figures presented by the Polish-Romanian Bilateral Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PRBCC). The data was released during a reception in Bucharest marking Poland’s Independence Day and Romania’s National Day. Polish investments […]
As Romania moves closer to implementing the EU Pay Transparency Directive, local employers are preparing for one of the most consequential shifts in workplace regulation in over a decade. The directive, set for transposition by June 2026, introduces strict new rules on salary disclosure, pay reporting, and equal-pay verification, aiming to close persistent gender gaps […]
