Premium
The Minister of Energy, Sebastian Burduja, signed the agreements for the amicable termination of the current financing contracts related to Milestone 129, the hydrogen milestone, with the seven beneficiaries, the companies Center Hub Sud, Chimcomplex Onesti, Chimcomplex S.A Borzesti - the Ramnicu Valcea branch, Nova Hydrogen Production, BPlus Advisory SRL, Monnson Alma and OMV Petrom, informs the ministry through a press release.
"This approach was necessary because, in the framework of the call for projects for the construction of a capacity of new electrolyzers of at least 100 MW, a series of aspects were found which, in the opinion of the Audit Authority and the European Commission, made it impossible to implement the approach and the remediation of the issues identified through measures subsequent to the signing of the contracts. During the various stages of the initial call, the need to clarify the requirements and criteria applicable to the beneficiaries of PNRR funding was thus identified. Equally, these adjustments must not influence the premises on the basis of which the decision to approve the state aid scheme was issued. In this process, consultations are necessary with the Competition Council and MIPE and later with DG Competition and DG Recovery. In this sense, we have developed a calendar, with the following indicative deadlines: 06.07 - release of guide for consultation: 14.07 - publication of the final guide; 17.07 - 16.08 - application registration period; 23.08 - the application evaluation deadline; 01.09 - contracting", the press release states.
In this context, Sebastian Burduja specified that, through the amicable termination of the financing contracts, another step was taken to close the last PNRR milestone that remained in suspension.
"As I said, the PNRR milestones are our zero priority. Today we took another step towards closing the last pending milestone, related to payment request 2, Milestone 129. I assure you that the Ministry of Energy will do everything possible to it fell within the time horizon requested by the Commission. There were administrative reasons, what happens from now on is more important. Hydrogen is the first scheme at the level of the European Union that was approved as part of the PNRR, so Romania is a pioneer at the European level and the European framework is constantly evolving, as is the regulatory framework at the national level. We will speed up the pace and deliver what we promised," said Burduja.
He also emphasized the fact that, due to the innovative nature of green hydrogen production technologies and the European and national legislation that still requires some clarifications, the actors in the field do not have a level of expertise similar to the investments implemented for years (for example, the power plants in cogeneration), which are repetitive.
The European Commission issued, at the end of June, a positive preliminary assessment of the second payment request requested by Romania within the PNRR, after analyzing and finding that the country met 49 of the 51 milestones and targets assumed in this sense, informs a press release of the European Commission.
According to the cited document, the Commission found that two milestones related to energy investments (more precisely, milestones 129 and 133) were not satisfactorily achieved. At the same time, the European Executive recognizes the first steps already taken by Romania to reach these outstanding milestones, but emphasizes that there is still much to do. Therefore, the Commission activates the procedure for suspending payments, pursuant to Article 24 paragraph (6) of the Regulation on the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism. In accordance with the Regulation on the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism and the explanations in the Communication published on February 21, 2023, this procedure gives Member States additional time to achieve outstanding milestones, while allowing them to benefit from a partial payment related to milestones and targets that have been satisfactorily met, the European Commission's release of June 27 stated. AGERPRES
