BNR: For Romania to benefit from EU funds, reforms are necessary

Romania should have received 28.5 billion euros in funds, in the form of grants and loans, from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, but for the billions from the EU to come, reforms are also necessary, believes Cristian Popa, member of the central bank's Board of Directors, in a post on the LinkedIn network."28.5 billion euros, money that we needed like air. This is the allocation, in the form of grants and loans, of funds that should have returned to Romania from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. Compared to the GDP of 2023, it means almost 9%, in other words we are in the top 5 beneficiaries in the EU, compared to the size of the economy. It is money that we could not afford to miss," Popa said.According to him, the amount means around 1,100 km of highway (the distance from Bucharest to Vienna) or 230,000 average apartments in Bucharest (only 150,000 in Cluj), or over a million Dacia Dusters."An NGO led by an extremely dedicated and visionary team built a hospital in the capital, exclusively from donations and sponsorships, for 53 million euros. A hospital that offers modern conditions and a chance at life for children in Romania. The money from the PNRR was equivalent to no less than 500 hospitals of this kind," he explained.He stated that, since the approval of the PNRR in 2021 and until the end of May 2025, Romania has collected 9.44 billion euros, of which 3.66 billion in the form of loans and 5.78 billion in the form of grants, out of a total allocated of 28.5 billion. Thus, to date, the funds attracted represent approximately one third of the total allocation. At the Union level, however, the average absorption rate of PNRR funds is close to 50%."Last week, however, we unfortunately learned what the reality on the ground is: projects worth over 6.3 billion euros can no longer be carried out by Romania by the deadline (August 2026). This means that they will no longer receive financing through the PNRR. Fewer investments from European money. And all the delays accumulated so far will require, from now on, considerable efforts from the authorities. Obviously, in the absence of resources from the PNRR, many projects remain either blocked/without a source of financing, or will have to be financed from the state budget, so they will increase expenses, put pressure on the deficit and make fiscal consolidation more difficult, a consolidation that was already difficult," the BNR official mentioned.He added that there is also good news because last week, the European Commission presented the proposal for the next multiannual financial framework (MFF 2028-2034) worth almost 2,000 billion euros, and Romania could receive 60 billion euros from the future EU budget, 10 billion more than in the current framework (MFF 2021-2027).The proposal will probably undergo further adjustments following the negotiations, but even in this preliminary form, Romania is the sixth largest beneficiary of the EU's multiannual budget, claims Cristian Popa."For the billions from the EU to come, however, reforms are also necessary. The question is how many reforms will Romania manage to implement, how many milestones will it meet on time, and how many billions will actually reach the country, the economy, and concrete projects? Europe is not perfect, but it can and must be improved. We must receive, and we do receive, fishing rods, not fish. And no, we are by no means a colony," concludes Cristian Popa's post on LinkedIn.