On the day when the PSD ministers' resignation takes effect, Bolojan points to the great risk. The measures on which the obtaining of 7 billion euros from the PNRR depends
Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan called for responsibility on Monday, on the day when the resignation of PSD ministers from the Government will be made official, warning that in the next period a series of laws must be adopted for the implementation of some PNRR benchmarks, on which billions of euros depend.
The Head of the Executive warned on Monday, in a post on Facebook, that Romania still has 10 billion euros to access from the PNRR program, which must be obtained by August 2026, an amount that represents a third of the total public investments.
“A test of political responsibility”
The Prime Minister said that the Ministry of European Projects has inventoried the most important 9 milestones, on which more than 7 billion euros depend, the amount needed to be able to finish the investment works.
“We need to approve 9 laws that will regulate different areas, as described below, from public sector pay to fiscal or energy issues. Voting the 9 laws will be, beyond disputes and different approaches, a test of responsibility for the political class in Romania,” said Bolojan.
Among the Government's priorities in the following period are: accessing European funds, by meeting milestones and finalizing investments, making payments to beneficiaries, finishing the works and receiving them, indicated the Prime Minister.
The 9 milestones on which more than 7 billion euros depend
The main milestones are the following:
- Milestone no. 431
Coordinator: National Integrity Agency / Ministry of Justice;
Measure: Updating the integrity legal framework for the public office;
Name: Entry into force of the consolidated law on integrity;
Indicator: The consolidated law on integrity will enter into force following a prior assessment and analysis of existing laws on integrity;
Penalty: 771 million euros.
- Milestone no. 509
Coordinator: Ministry of Agriculture;
Measure: Creating a legal framework for the use of state lands as acceleration zones for investments in renewable energy sources;
Name: Entry into force of legal acts;
Indicator: Law for the introduction of a framework regarding the use of state-owned lands, administered by the State Domains Agency (ADS), as areas for accelerating investments in renewable energy sources (SRE);
Penalty: 771 million euros.
- Milestone no. 315
Coordinator: Ministry of Development;
Measure: Development of the planning system – the land use, urban planning and construction code;
Name: Entry into force of the Land Use, Urban Planning and Construction Code;
Indicator: CATUC will include:
- reducing the deadlines for issuing administrative documents, as well as introducing new mechanisms to ensure digitized administrative processes in construction;
- the possibility of creating planning structures at the level of functional urban areas;
- requirements regarding the updating and transposition of spatial and urban plans in geographic information systems (GIS), as well as requirements regarding their alignment with the following principles of Romania's urban policy: promoting sustainable transport and increasing road safety, the use of nature-based solutions/green and blue infrastructure, including at the level of functional urban and rural areas;
- the requirement that updated urban planning documents include provisions aimed at reducing travel time and distance for the population in functional urban and rural areas;
Penalty: 972 million euros.
- Milestone no. 119a
Coordinator: Ministry of Energy;
Measure: Reform the electricity market, by replacing coal in the energy mix and supporting a legislative and regulatory framework stimulating private investment in the production of electricity from renewable sources;
Name: Decommissioning the 710 MW coal/lignite electricity production capacity;
Indicator: Modification of the decarbonization law, depending on the conclusions of the adequacy study carried out for Transelectrica, to regulate the coal-based electricity production capacity required to be maintained in operation;
Penalty: 771 million euros.
- Milestone no. 128
Coordinator: Ministry of Energy;
Measure: Decarbonisation of the heating-cooling sector;
Name: Entry into force of legislative acts introducing measures to decarbonise the heating and cooling sector;
Indicator: Legislation introducing measures to decarbonise the heating and cooling sector:
i) the responsibilities of central and local authorities for the management of the heating and cooling sector and the extension of the application of the Corporate Governance Law to district heating providers;
ii) the framework for ensuring the sustainability and traceability of biomass, in order to prevent any negative impact of the use of bioenergy on biodiversity and forests;
iii) provisions regarding the diversification of the energy mix in the heating and cooling sector, reducing the forest biomass component;
iv) allowing prosumers (including apartment blocks and tenants' associations) to produce and sell excess solar and possibly wind energy in more flexible forms, as well as introducing incentives, including quantitative compensation;
Penalty: 771 million euros.
- Milestone no. 197
Coordinator: Ministry of Finance;
Measure: Reform of the National Fiscal Administration Agency (ANAF) through digitization;
Name: Structural reform of ANAF and legislative changes to increase the degree of compliance with fiscal obligations;
Indicator: Legislation regarding the bonus system of ANAF inspectors (bonus-malus);
Penalty: 771 million euros.
- Milestone no. 4;
Coordinator: Ministry of the Environment;
Measure: Reconfiguration of the economic mechanism of the “Romanian Waters” National Administration (ANAR), in order to ensure the modernization and maintenance of the national water management system;
Name: Entry into force of the law introducing changes to regulate the new economic mechanism for water resources in Romania;
Indicator: Legislation for the regulation of the new economic mechanism for water resources in Romania. The new mechanism will increase the correlation between the revenue system in the water field, regulated by ANAR, and the costs related to each category of users it supplies;
Penalty: 972 million euros.
- Milestone no. 420
Coordinator: Ministry of Labour;
Measure: Development of a fair and uniform salary system in the public sector;
Name: Entry into force of the new legal framework regarding the remuneration of public sector employees;
Indicator: Legislation on the remuneration of public sector employees, which will establish a unified calculation methodology, to ensure a fiscally sustainable, fair and performance-related wage system;
Penalty: 771 million euros.
- Milestone no. 442
Coordinator: General Secretariat of the Government;
Measure: Improving the procedural framework for implementing corporate governance principles within state-owned enterprises;
Name: Reduction of interim appointments in administrative/supervisory boards by 50% for centrally state-owned enterprises and by 10% for locally-owned enterprises;
Indicator: Legislation on the regulation of the proportional regime for the reporting obligations of state-owned enterprises under the responsibility of local public authorities;
Penalty: 771 million euros.
The PSD ministers' resignations will take effect today
The PSD ministers' resignations are to be published, on Monday, in the Official Gazette and will come into force from this moment.
The resignations of the social-democratic ministers and the interim proposals were signed on Friday evening by Nicușor Dan and will enter into force as soon as they are published on Monday, in the Official Gazette.
The social democrats who were part of the Executive will present, during the day, their balance sheet and will hand over their mandates to the other ministers who take over the portfolios on an interim basis.
At the same time, Dan invited the party leaders from the broken coalition to Cotroceni on Monday, April 27, for a discussion about the SAFE and PNRR programs.
