Romania planning EUR 13.8 bln worth of calls for projects, largest such amount in 14 years

Minister of European Investments and Projects Marcel Bolos will clarify this week in Brussels several aspects related to the more than 13.8 billion euro worth of calls for projects that will be launched in the next period, the largest such amount in the last 14 years, according to the cited official."The mission of our delegation to Brussels is to clarify the steps we are taking during this period as regards the milestones in the second quarter of 2022. It is a more complicated quarter in terms of the milestones we have to check, because out of 69 calls for projects throughout 2022, 58 are due in the second quarter. This means that the European Commission must check them and the applicant's guide, as per the NRRP, has to go through our and the EC's approval filter," Bolos explained at the end of Monday's government meeting.According to the Minister, some of these calls also involve state aid schemes, which is why the applicant's guidelines will be sent to the European Commission for approval."For us not to get stalled in this project call launch, we prefer to have a discussion with the EC to let them know that in the next period, most probably in May and June, we will send the applicant's guidelines to the Commission for approval, as we are also seeking to correlate with them, because this is about 13.8 billion euros we are putting up for grabs in this application procedure - the largest allocation for project calls we've had in 14 years since we manage European funds," Marcel Bolos underscored.Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca announced today that Marcel Bolos will travel to Brussels this week for talks on the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, stating also that the NRRP Interministerial Coordinating Committee had a meeting on Monday to analyze the stage of the implementation of the pledged milestones and targets."This was a great opportunity to identify both our achievements and what we have to do next. A delegation led by Minister Bolos will go to Brussels this week to clarify all elements enabling us, as we have pledged, to start the 58 out of 69 calls in our portfolio by the end of June. The mechanisms and procedures are in place for us to be able to access these funds, which, as I said, are a great opportunity for us to continue to grow as our citizens expect us to," Ciuca declared at the beginning of the government meeting.