Romania is set to lose around €770 million in EU recovery funds after its interim government and parliament failed to pass a key reform before a 31 August deadline, APA reports.
The reform, part of Romania’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), was intended to overhaul public-sector salaries and is tied to the country’s final recovery-fund milestones. Political disagreements prevented parliament from adopting it in time, the Romanian president’s office confirmed on Friday.
The missed deadline means the funding is expected to be forfeited, even though the government had already factored the money into budgets and projects under way. The costs will now fall on Romania’s already stretched national finances.
European Funds Minister Dragoș Pîslaru estimated that Romania would still absorb more than 90% of the grants available under the EU’s post-pandemic recovery fund.