Three laws that prevent Romania from getting the billions of euros from the PNRR

Romania could lose billions of euros, if it does not pass the European Commission’s test regarding the deep reforms. The second installment of 3 billion euros from the National Plan of Resilience and Recovery (PNRR) has not yet been approved, and for the third we do not have the reforms ready.

The question marks are: decarbonisation and the whistleblower, as Europa Liberă  reported.

Whistleblowers play a critical role in democracy by exposing crime, corruption, fraud or mismanagement in state or private institutions and companies.

The media reported that the current form of the whistleblower law deviates from its fundamental purpose, which is to combat illegal behavior or corruption. The law, they say, would discourage anonymous reporting, thereby exposing whistleblower integrity. In addition, it includes conditions that make it easy to disregard certain reports.

As for the decarbonization law, it prohibits the operation of new power generation capacities based on lignite or coal. The normative act was contested by the PSD and the USR, on the grounds that the Government is closing energy production capacities and is not bringing anything in place.

The European Commission conveys that Romania’s collection of the second tranche of the PNRR is not in danger, but the payment request is still in the evaluation stage at the Commission.

In addition to the ongoing assessment of whistleblower and decarbonisation laws, the preparation of the third tranche application is also in big trouble. The request must include the law that provides for the reform of special pensions, which we do not have, a month and a half before the deadline.

Politicians from the opposition and from the governing coalition agree that the project submitted to the Senate at the end of December has major gaps and will not be accepted by the European Commission in its current form. He was returned to the Ministry of Labor, and a delegation of the World Bank once again offered advice to the Government on the repair of the normative act.