The budgets of the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of the Environment will be increased by 2 billion lei to pay invoices relating to projects under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), interim Finance Minister Alexandru Nazare has announced.
'Development investments must not be halted because of bottlenecks in receiving payments. Companies that have carried out works must have predictability regarding payments. That is why we are providing an additional 2 billion lei for the budgets of the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of the Environment to pay invoices relating to PNRR projects. We are making this possible through budgetary flexibility mechanisms and by using the reserves we planned at the beginning of the year, when we put forward the draft budget law for this year,' he wrote on his Facebook page, agerpres reports.
The additional funding of more than 2 billion lei will be allocated to railway infrastructure (1.33 billion lei), motorways (409 million lei), local infrastructure (53 million lei) and environmental investments (353 million lei).
According to the minister, by October 12, payments totalling 44.3 billion lei had been made from the state budget for PNRR projects, including 28.6 billion lei for the grants component and 15.7 billion lei for the loans component. These amounts include both European funding and the national contribution, VAT and other expenses covered by the state budget.
'With the additional allocations we are mobilising today and the funds from the budgets of the two ministries that have not yet been spent, the actual budgetary effort mobilised in 2026 for PNRR projects exceeds 46.5 billion lei, equivalent to almost 8.7 billion euros,' Nazare stressed.
He also noted that each ministry and each coordinator of PNRR reforms and investments must clarify which projects have been completed, which works have been carried out, which invoices have been issued and which outstanding obligations still need to be funded, including from sources other than the PNRR. This is because the 2027 budget cannot be drawn up on the basis of estimates or invoices submitted after the programme has closed.
'Financial stability for the country also means anticipating needs, retaining resources for difficult times and directing money towards areas where investments are making tangible progress. The scale of payments made so far illustrates the extent of the budgetary effort to support PNRR investments. These payments mean more than keeping construction sites active. They provide liquidity for companies, payments to subcontractors and suppliers, economic activity and jobs supported across the country.
'But 2026 is also the year in which we must bring the PNRR chapter to a responsible close. We have supported the acceleration of investments and mobilised the necessary resources. We must now ensure that Romania enters 2027 with a complete picture of its outstanding obligations,' the head of the Finance Ministry emphasised.
In this context, he reiterated that the binding deficit-reduction target and Romania's European commitments must be met while maintaining a high level of public investment, which stimulates the wider economy.
'To achieve all this, we need transparency, prioritisation and much more rigorous resource planning. Budgetary discipline means funding what we can afford to sustain, paying the obligations we have undertaken and not transferring today's problems into tomorrow's debt. This is the difference between managing expenditure and managing public finances responsibly,' Alexandru Nazare added.
