European Investments Minister: National Reform and Resilience Plan to be tabled to Gov't this week

The National Reform and Resilience Plan (PNRR) will be presented to the government this week for a first reading, and the formal decision will hopefully come next week, Minister of European Investments and Projects Cristian Ghinea said today. "The revised plan is not yet public, it will be presented to the government this week for a first reading, and we hope to have a formal decision of the government next week. (...) According to the timetable, we should have all the details presented to the government during this week, and we will have a first reading of the government decision mandating the Ministry for European Investments and Projects to initiate talks with the European Commission; in parallel with these informal discussions with the European Commission, we will work out some of these measures. (...) I hope that we will be able to negotiate with a clear mandate. Romania has a coalition government, but I can tell you that after very detailed negotiations we have managed to reach a consensus within the coalition, which will support the new draft of the plan," Ghinea told an online event organized by the Department for Sustainable Development in partnership with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Ghinea explained that the draft PNRR has taken into account all the sustainable development goals, noting that the legislation for the minimum inclusion income will be implemented under the umbrella of the poverty removal goal, "a sort of revolution in Romania's social welfare system." "This reform, which has been delayed for long in Romania, encourages the poor to enter the formal labor market. This will be a sort of revolution in the Romanian social welfare system and I hope we find a way to include it in the plan and to partially cover the cost of its implementation," Ghinea said. The Minister of European Investments and Projects also referred to the national program for reducing school dropout, which is tightly related to the poverty eradication target. "Basically, we will target the 1,600 schools that are the most vulnerable to this phenomenon and which will have a dedicated grant scheme, aimed at keeping children in school. We are preparing this scheme together with the Education Ministry and I am very optimistic about the potential results. It was ran as a pilot project with the cohesion funds and this is a type of reform could have a huge impact on Romania," he explained. Another facility mentioned is a bridge scholarship program for children who move to high school, given that this is the moment when many, especially in rural areas, drop out of school due to the high costs required by relocating from their home locality to where the high school is. The Minister of European Investments and Projects also referred to the goal of ensuring a healthy life and promoting general well-being. "Regarding resilience-supporting investments in the health system, we have two directions. The first is to increase access to the health system, which has been a recurring recommendation made by the European Commission. We will invest a part of the funds in prevention and early diagnosis and treatment services. The second direction is the health infrastructure, new hospitals and the modernization of existing hospitals, because the system is in a quite serious situation," underlined the head of European Investments and Projects. Ghinea dwelled on sustainable forest management, the combat of desertification, stopping and reversing land degradation as on a "very ambitious" goal. "Our initial proposal is to invest 1.5 billion euros for afforestation and biodiversity. I hope I won't be accused of boasting, but I think we will have the most ambitious investments in forests, on the one hand in combating illegal logging with modern, digital means, by tracking the amount of wood that is cut from the forests, and on the other hand by a special line for planting new forests. Romania is below the EU average when it comes to forested areas. These are just some examples. I am very optimistic that in the final plan we will cover most of the sustainable development objectives, because it is a natural necessity of the Romanian society and this has been quite obvious during the public consultation process," Ghinea added. The PNRR will have 33 components grouped around the 6 pillars that have been introduced by the European Parliament, and each area of intervention will have both reforms and investments assigned, as well as milestones and targets to be achieved. Romania has an estimated budget of 30.4 billion euros under the "Recovery and Resilience Mechanism" financing instrument, of which 13.7 billion euros are available in the form of grants and 16.6 billion euros in the form of loans. The government of Romania, through the Department for Sustainable Development, organized on Tuesday in partnership with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development an online event on the sidelines of the 2021 Regional Forum for Sustainable Development held by the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). The said event focuses on the common challenges to the policies for aligning post-COVID national recovery plans, in close connection with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, but envisages also the role of policy coherence in supporting green and digital transitions. The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) is one of the five regional commissions of the UN, having the mission to promote pan-European economic integration. The coordinator of the Department for Sustainable Development, state councilor Laszlo Borbely, serves as co-chair of the Regional Forum for Sustainable Development this year. AGERPRES (RO - author: Constantin Balaban, editor: Mariana Nica; EN - editor: Simona Klodnischi)