Commission approves Romania’s amended recovery and resilience plan of EUR 28.5 billion, including a REPowerEU chapter

*The Commission approves Romania’s amended recovery and resilience plan of EUR 28.5 billion, which includes a REPowerEU chapter.   Today, 21 November, the Commission has positively assessed Romania’s amended recovery and resilience plan, which includes a chapter on REPowerEU. The funding provided currently amounts to EUR 28.5 billion (EUR 14.9 billion in loans and EUR 13.6 billion in grants), the plan comprising 66 reforms and 111 investments.   The REPowerEU chapter presented by Romania consists of two new reforms and seven investments to meet the objectives of the REPowerEU  plan to make Europe independent from fossil fuels coming from Russia well before 2030. These measures aim at accelerating the production of green energy, promoting the energy efficiency of buildings, and reskilling and upskilling the green energy workforce.   Romania has amended 56 measures.   The changes to Romania’s initial plan were driven by the need to take into account:   objective circumstances that prevented the fulfilment of certain measures as originally planned, including as a result of high inflation in 2022 and 2023 and supply chain disruptions caused by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, and the downward revision of the maximum RRF grant allocation to the country from EUR 14.2 billion to EUR 12.1 billion. This revision is the result of the June 2022 update of the RRF grant allocation key and reflects Romania’s economic result in 2020 and 2021, comparatively better than initially foreseen.   Romania has requested the transfer of its share of the Brexit Adjustment Reserve to the Plan, in line with the REPowerEU Regulation. These funds, in addition to the allocation for Romania in the form of RRF and REPowerEU grants (EUR 12.1 billion and EUR 1.4 billion respectively) and RRF loans (EUR 14.9 billion), bring the amount of funding under the amended plan to EUR 28.5 billion.   Additional impetus for Romania’s green transition      Romania’s amended plan places a strong focus on the green transition, allocating 44.1 % (up from 41 % in the original plan) of the funds available to measures supporting climate objectives.   The new measures included in the REPowerEU chapter significantly reinforce Romania’s efforts in the green transition. The REPowerEU chapter includes two new reforms. One of the reforms introduces a legal framework for the use of unproductive or degraded state-owned land for the production of green energy.   The other reform establishes one-stop-shops to provide prosumers with advisory services for energy efficiency renovations and renewable energy generation.   The seven investments in the REPowerEU chapter aim at accelerating the use of renewable energy sources and the pace of energy efficiency renovations, as well as reskilling the workforce to acquire green skills.   Strengthening Romania’s digital preparedness and social resilience     Romania’s revised plan continues to contribute significantly to the digital transition and allocates 21.8 % (up from 20.5 % in the original plan) to support the country’s digital transition. It provides for the development of infrastructure and the digitalisation of specific sectors such as health, public employment services and social protection, transport, education, taxation, culture, the judiciary and environmental services.   The REPowerEU chapter includes a reform and two sub-investments related to the digitalisation of public authorities, offering new digital solutions and equipment. They aim to optimise the communication network, create a data centre and limit the risk of cyber-attacks on the infrastructure of the electricity transmission system operator.   The important social dimension of the plan has also been strengthened. Together with the transformative reforms and investments in the original plan, the new measures include voucher schemes to accelerate the use of renewable energy sources and improve the energy efficiency of households, with a particular focus on vulnerable households, training for green energy skills and accelerating the production of green energy.   Next steps    As a general rule, the Council now has four weeks to approve the Commission’s assessment. After the Council approves the plan, Romania will receive EUR 288 million in pre-financing from REPowerEU funds.   Under the RRF, Romania has so far received EUR 9.06 billion, i.e. EUR 1.8 billion in pre-financing in December 2021, representing 13 % of the initial financial allocation, EUR 1.9 billion in pre-financing in January 2022, representing 13 % of the loan allocation, a first disbursement of EUR 2.6 billion in October 2022 and a second disbursement of EUR 2.76 billion in September 2023.   The Commission will authorise new payments provided that the milestones and targets set out in Romania’s revised recovery and resilience plan are satisfactorily met, reflecting progress in the implementation of investments and reforms.