The European Union has decided to establish a temporary financial instrument – #NextGenerationEU, worth €750 billion, separate from the EU’s long-term budget, the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), for the period 2021–2027. Its primary goal is to support member states in addressing the challenges posed by the Covid-19 Crisis and its economic consequences. The Recovery and Resilience Mechanism (RRM) is the main pillar of #NextGenerationEU, with a total budget of €672.5 billion. The Recovery and Resilience Mechanism came into force in February 2021. Member states have already begun using the funds provided by the RRM to implement ambitious reforms and investments, all aimed at accelerating sustainable economic development.

For the use of the RRM funding instrument, each EU member state has developed its own National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), which sets out priority investment areas for exiting the crisis, economic recovery, and increasing resilience capacity. The National Recovery and Resilience Plan is a strategic document that defines investment priorities and the reforms necessary for recovery and sustainable growth, aligned with the green and digital transitions envisioned by the European Commission.

The implementation of Romania's National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) began at the end of last year, once the European Commission and the Council of the EU approved the final form.

At the end of last year, Romania received a pre-financing amount of €1.8 billion. This €1.8 billion represents 13% of the non-repayable EU funds allocated to Romania through the NRRP, which totals €14.2 billion. Additionally, on January 13, 2021, the European Commission transferred another €1.9 billion to Romania, which represents 13% of the loan component allocated to Romania under the NRRP, offered under very favorable conditions.

At the European level, the European Commission has launched a “Scoreboard” for the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, a virtual dashboard providing all necessary information about the European NRRPs and their implementation status.

At the level of the European Parliament, there is a working group dedicated to implementing the NRRPs, and we are working in parallel on a Parliament report regarding the implementation of the NRRPs to ensure that governments fulfill their duties to citizens and that the reforms and investments they committed to are successfully carried out.