Romania is not in a position to "lose" the equivalent of the first payment request from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), states the Ministry of European Investments and Projects (MIPE), in response to the "disinformation that appeared in the public space".
"More specifically, on July 25, 2022 at 12:00, the MIPE representatives discussed with the European Commission regarding the situation of payment request number 1, sent on May 31, 2022 (...) We inform that all the documents regarding the fulfillment of the benchmarks and the related targets were fully communicated and verified by the European Commission's services. Thus, the validation process for the 21 benchmarks and targets has ended", the representatives of the ministry emphasize in a release.
According to them, at the request of the European Commission (EC), the deadline for issuing the preliminary positive opinion was extended to complete the PNRR computer system with the information necessary to identify the final beneficiaries of the payments. Romania has made a commitment that the IT platform will be adjusted with the requested additional function by July 31, 2022, Agerpres.ro informs.
On August 1, 2022, the testing of the additional function requested by the EC will take place, and the request will enter the payment procedure, according to the EC Regulation.
The payment procedure involves going through the following stages: approval of the EC interservices for issuing the preliminary positive opinion; submitting the payment request to the Specialist Committees of the ECOFIN Council; approval of the payment in the Council of the European Union - ECOFIN.
"The payment of the installment of 2.6 billion euros can take place at the end of September 2022, without this affecting the budget state and without causing delays in the implementation of the assumed reforms and investments", the press release also mentions.