Funds of 1.9 billion euros to enter Romania's account on Thursday, through PNRR

Funds worth 1.9 billion euros will enter the Romanian state's account on Thursday, representing pre-financing from the loan granted to Romania, through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), after the targets and milestones of the fourth quarter of 2021 have been reached, the Ministry of European Investments and Projects (MIPE) informs in a release sent on Wednesday."On January 13, 2022, with the entry into force of the Loan Agreement (Recovery and Resilience Mechanism) between the European Commission and Romania, the amount related to the pre-financing of the loan component will be transferred, amounting to 1,942,479,890 euros, representing 13% of the total loan amount, in addition to the first tranche of pre-financing, on the grant component, paid by the European Commission on December 2, 2021, amounting to 1.85 billion euros. Thus, until now, a total amount of 3.79 billion euros was granted to Romania, from the moment of approving and starting the implementation of PNRR, on November 3, 2021," the quoted source states.The Council's implementing decision of November 3, 2021 states that the loan amounts will be made available in ten installments, based on the Romanian side meeting the milestones and targets for the loan reforms and investments."The loans from this program, drawn in very advantageous conditions, will be used to finance large-scale projects for Romania, whether we are talking about hundreds of kilometers of motorway, tens of thousands of homes connected to water and canal networks, facilities for digitization a few thousands of SMEs or tens of thousands of reforestation hectares. Access to these funds is conditional on the implementation of the reforms undertaken by PNRR and therefore requires a joint effort of all coordinators," said the Minister of Investment and European Projects Dan Vilceanu.The representatives of MIPE emphasize that the institution will send, in the first part of 2022, the first request for payment to the European Commission, based on the fulfillment of the 24 targets and milestones related to the first quarter of 2022, out of the total of 507 assumed throughout the plan.The amount related to the implementation of PNRR is 29,181,842,750 euros. Romania requested non-reimbursable financial support amounting to 14,239,689,750 euros and loans of 14,942,153,000 euros under the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism. All this represents 13.09% of GDP reported in 2019.The plan contains 171 measures, of which 64 are reforms and 107 are investments, structured around six pillars and 15 components.The main objectives of the plan are achieving the green transition and the digital transition, while strengthening healthcare, education, social cohesion and inclusion.