This year's objective for all ministries is to get as much money as possible from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), as such projects at European level will no longer be available anytime soon, Finance Minister Alexandru Nazare said on Monday evening.
"We are in charge [of drawing European funds]. The finance deals with the management of these programmes, their spending, we make sure that there are financial resources, that there is co-financing everywhere where it is needed. The objective for this year must be for all ministries, and we discussed this from the first day of the year, from the first month of this year: to get as much money as possible from PNRR. It is the only chance to take this money that is available to us. We will not find such projects, of such dimensions, at European level any time soon. The new financial framework will be much different from what we were used to before with cohesion projects. There will be more cohesion, but the new framework is much different. As such, the objective in 2026: we must get European money," Nazare told Antena 3 private broadcaster.
As for the 2026 budget, Nazare said that there are still many discussions about how the money will be distributed, but, according to the agreed calendar, it will be published in mid-February and will be approved immediately after.
"There is an agreed calendar. The budget will be published in mid-February and will be approved immediately afterwards. There are intense discussions with the ministries this week and next week for the aggregation of the draft budget. (...) There are many discussions about how the money will be distributed, dissatisfactions, but we are trying to manage them so that at the end of this process we have a fair budget, a budget that no longer overestimates revenues, does not underestimate expenses and the right budget is the hardest, but I am confident that we will succeed," Nazare said.
He added that for this year's budget there is no hypothesis of VAT increase.
"I think it's the 4th month in a row that I have the same answer. The 4th month in a row in which there was talk about the VAT increase, we went out and said that we do not have this hypothesis of VAT increase. The same thing about HORECA. HORECA remains with a reduced share in 2026. So, we do not have for this year's budget the hypothesis of increasing the VAT."
He also pointed to the need to attract large investors , saying that Romania's economic ambition must be higher, with a clear focus on regional positioning.
"We need to attract large investors. Our economic ambition must be greater, we must target the region, including Romanian companies, and we must be helped internationalise, make investments, and even exit. And of course, we need to attract large investments through relocations. There are companies that search, feel, look for them, whether they are European or outside Europe. This launch program that we are discussing creates that investment menu that we have not had so far, through which we can attract investors of various sizes, depending on their interests, with special attention in this area of artificial intelligence, semiconductors, but also in the area of mineral resources and taking into account especially the trade balance deficit. That is, we support companies, but we support them in areas where we have the largest trade balance deficit," Nazare also said.
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