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Romania will not benefit from European funds through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) for the irrigation system, Deputy Prime Minister Dan Barna declared on Wednesday evening.
He told public television broadcaster TVR1 that the Minister of European Investments and Projects, Cristian Ghinea, presented the PNRR draft in Brussels, but the European Commission requested it to be changed.
"In the talks and negotiations within the coalition with the three partners, we agreed upon a form of proposals for the PNRR, that our colleague Cristian Ghinea took to Brussels, where he discussed with European officials, with commissioners on the topic. Some of the themes were accepted. Regarding other matters, the European Commission said: "I believe they are necessary to you, but we will not give you money from the PNRR for this". We have three billion for irrigation. They said that it is not a reform which helps post-COVID resilience, because this instrument was thought out at European level so that states can get back on their feet after the COVID crisis and some themes are accepted, others ... It is not that they are not giving us money at all. For some they said that the allocation is too large and they are prepared to give out smaller amounts," Barna said.
He highlighted that for the irrigation system funds will be allocated from the national budget or from the structural agriculture funds.
The Deputy PM also said that there are talks with European officials "for getting the infrastructure component accepted".
"We continue to have discussions related to the infrastructure component support, which for us is a matter of life and death. It is an ongoing discussion. They have not rejected it, but there is the talk about sizing, how much the grants should be, how much the loans. For several chapters, already presented to the public and in Parliament by my colleague Cristian Ghinea we have on the table today the points of view of the Commission, with observations, with aspects to add. Tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, we will have meetings within the Government with ministers, in which we will be presenting the Commission's points of view," Dan Barna mentioned.
According to him, by mid-May there will be a "consolidated form" of the PNRR project, which will be subject to approval by the European Commission.
