Romania risks losing 8.7 billion euros from PNRR

Romania has at its disposal less than a month to fulfil conditions needed to access the last funds of the National Plan of Recovery and Resilience (PNRR), otherwise 8.7 billion euros risk to be lost forever, economic consultant Adrian Negrescu warns on his Facebook page.   “PNRR was initially promoted as a project meant to structurally modernize Romania, bringing billions of euro for hospitals, highways and deep reforms. Today, when looking at figures and reality in the field, it becomes obvious that this program is a major failure from the investment point of view. It is the image of a giant program built without a long term perspective, without impact studies and blocked in a maze of administrative failure and political instability. Initially, when it was launched, I called it the National Plan for Possible Reforms. Later on it became the National Plan of Failed Reforms. We are now faced by 95% of the implementation period already spent and the results are dark,” Negrescu mentioned.   According to him, Romania succeeded to collect only 61% of funds reported to the recalculated amounts and a “catastrophic 44% if we report to the initial, ambitious value of the program of 29 billion euros.”   “The degree of fulfilling the targets faithfully shows the precarious return rate, proving that the budget sector was completely overcome by the complex demands. We have only a month left until the absolute deadline at the end of August 2026. 8.7 billion euros are still at stake, a huge amount we risk losing because of idleness,”Negrescu added.   According to the consultant, Romania received 13 billion euros, but “the invoice of its incompetence is huge.” “We have already lost 500 million euros from Payment Request no. 3 and we had to pay 7 billio euros for the 2025 renegotiation, directly paying for chronic delays accumulated by previous governments. The roots of this failure lie not only in the faulty execution, but in the PNRR foundation itself. The program was made hastily and looks like a shopping list and a series of bureaucratic wishes rather than a strategic plan. A kind of shawarma with everything on it, from the investment point of view,” the economic consultant wrote.   He showed that the lack of serious economic and social impact studies turned PNRR into a “time bomb for the public administration”. “Unrealistic deadlines were assumed and structural reforms of huge complexity, without evaluating the administrative capacity of ministries to carry them out or their real impact in society. The result is that Romania is suffocated today by its own failure to deliver what it chaotically engaged to do. Political instability functioned like a hand brake pulled at high speed. The crisis initiated by the censorship motion left the country to face the worst possible scenario, managing the end of PNRR by a provisional government. Although the ministers tried to maintain the pathe and worked continuously to unblock the big reforms they were responsible for, the present juridical limitations were blocking the state mechanism,” Negescu added.   In the consultant's opinion, the existence of a provisional government prevents the Executive to use the procedure of engaged responsibility or the adoption of emergency orders to promote the needed documents.   “The only lifeline left is to summon the Parliament for extraordinary sessions in the next period of time. Deputies and senators must quickly debate and adopt the laws keeping billions of euros captive. The utmost proof showing that PNRR was badly designed, leaving the most difficult and sensitive reforms for the end, can be seen on the list of blocked draft laws, where every day of delay costs money. Among the left reforms, six draft laws are the most important and cost huge sums of money. They were presented by premier Bolojan on Facebook,” Negrescu wrote.   He mentioned that the law for unitary wages , “a very politically sensitive project that has in view to amend inequalities in the public system, are worth 770 million euros.” “The same amount of 770 million euros is the stake for the law on incompatibilities, meant to cleanse and make public positions transparent. This amount is allocated for the law rewarding the Finance Ministry staff for improving the collection of incomes for the state budget, and the law on public positions, which has in view to professionalize the administrative staff. The highest financial stakes, of 972 million euros each, are atteched to the law on town planning, essential for infrastructure and the law on decarbonization of the heating and cooling sector, vital for the energy transition. Will politicians be able to approve them in an extraordinary session? It seems that there are slim chances for that,” the economic consultant added.   In his opinion, Romania is facing a painful paradox. “While we desperately need highways, hospitals and modernization, billions from PNRR risk to return to Brussels or be cancelled because of the desion makers' incompetence. PNRR was not a springboard, but a mirror which showed the huge lack of outlook, the absence of impact studies and the incapacity of the political class to place national interest above backstage games. A few more days are no longer about development, but about a desperate crisis management to save what may through an already assumed failure,”Negrescu added.