The European Commission has pushed back against demands by some politicians to renegotiate Romania’s resilience and recovery plan.
A spokesperson said on Thursday that the only circumstances where a plan could be modified were in the case of a major national disaster.
Reforms
Romania should focus on investment and implementing reforms and any request to modify the plan “gravely delays it being implemented,” the spokesperson told Hotnews on Thursday.
The plan will unlock billions of euros to boost EU states’ transition to new digital and green economies.
Romania’s Social Democrats are poised to enter a new coalition government next week. They are pushing for the country’s EU recovery plan, which was approved last month by EU finance ministers, to be renegotiated.
Digitalize
Romania is eligible for 14.2 billion euros in grants and €14.9 billion in loans which will also be used to digitalize the country’s public services and modernize the outdated and underfunded healthcare system.
The caretaker government adopted two memorandum that give the EU Investment Ministry and the Finance Ministry a mandate to sign the agreements with the European Commission.
That would unlock almost 3.8 billion euros of pre-financing money by the end of the year.
But Social Democrat chairman Marcel Ciolacu wants some parts renegotiated. He says his party does not agree with pledges made by the Save Romania Union which was in office until September.
Coalition
Romania’s governing coalition collapsed after the Save Romanian Union withdrew its ministers, saying they could no longer work with Prime Minister, Florin Citu.
Mr Citu, who is chairman of the center-right National Liberal Party, is negotiating the formation of a new government with the Social Democrats.
The Liberals however aren’t in favor of a renegotiation of the plan.
Plan
Meanwhile, the former EU investment minister, Cristian Ghinea said any renegotiation would block the execution of the plan, Euractiv reported.
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