The Minister of Investments and European Projects, Dragos Pislaru, estimates that in the first quarter of next year Romania will receive an answer from the European Commission regarding Payment Request number 3.
He made these clarifications in the context in which on Friday, November 28, Romania sent a letter to the European Commission, observing thus the deadline in force, to show evidence of the fulfillment of the milestones suspended in March.
At the same time, Pislaru paid a visit to Brussels on Friday, where he discussed with the General Director of SG REFORM, Celine Gauer.
"What follows after Romania submits the letter is a period of about two months, during which the European Commission will analyse the evidence submitted by the Romanian Government. It will have a point of view on these and will send us - this is what we discussed - a letter of observations presenting its perspective on how Romania has met these milestones," Pislaru told a press conference at the Victoria Palace on Tuesday.
He mentioned that, following that letter of observations, Romania will again have a period of about two months to justify whether there are differences of opinion regarding the European Commission's approach.
"However, we expect in the spring of next year, in the first quarter, to be able to have a resolution on this payment request," he added.
Pislaru mentioned that the suspension occurred as a result of the fact that for "more than two years" the Government failed to meet the targets and milestones in the PNRR. Therefore, the current Executive had to "repair" this situation, the minister explained.
"The amount we are talking about is 809.4 million euros. Attention! You will see a difference from the initial amount. From the negotiations we had on the revision of the PNRR, the two milestones that were, somehow, retroactive, so that could no longer be resolved, they were reset by renegotiating the PNRR, so the good news, which we confirmed with the European Commission on Friday, is that we are not losing money on the wrong public procurement milestones," he added.
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