Gov't Spokesperson Dogioiu: Romania is risking a PNRR penalty over appointments in state-owned companies

  Romania is risking a penalty from the European Commission for failing to meet the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) milestone regarding the appointments in state-owned companies, but it is not in a situation of fully missing the target, Government Spokesperson Ioana Dogioiu said on Thursday."The Agency for the Monitoring and Evaluation of the Performances of Public Enterprises (AMEPIP) is published in the Official Journal, as you may have seen, thus, we can consider the AMEPIP milestone is met and resolved. Regarding the other milestones, nothing has been finalised yet; a conclusion will be drawn tomorrow, as some matters are still ongoing. What I can tell you is that the milestone regarding the Hidroelectrica Directorate cannot be met because the procedure was annulled by the Supervisory Board, a new procedure will be launched, and Hidroelectrica announced this today in a press release. Moreover, regarding the boards of the CNAIR [the National Company for Road Infrastructure Administration] and the CNIR [National Road Investment Company], nothing can be done," Dogioiu told a press conference at the Victoria Palace, when asked about the implementation status of the PNRR milestones related to the appointment of leadership in certain state-owned companies, given that the deadline is 28 November, the same as for the draft law on magistrates' pensions.She mentioned that the exact amount of the potential penalty from the European Commission is not yet known: "I know that the next question will be about the money, there is no calculation yet, it is still being worked out to determine what the penalty for these milestones could be, however, in any case, it is a penalty, not a complete failure to meet these milestones. For example, in the Energy sector, 11 out of 12 companies have met the requirement for their directorates, so we can consider that a large part has been fulfilled. How much the unfulfilled part will cost - and it is still not entirely clear what that is, except for what I mentioned, which objectively can no longer be met - tomorrow, we will draw the line, the Ministry of European Funds is working on it and once everything is calculated and submitted, then we will certainly have the complete data." (Photo:https://gov.ro/)