Romania risks losing huge sums from the PNRR intended for the health system, warns the former secretary of state Marius Vasiliu. In an interview for “Adevărul”, he points out that our country has not yet received a single euro for health investments and that if the projects are not completed by August 2026, the consequences will be disastrous.
PNRR. Photo: MIPE
Romania enters the third year without a single euro settled through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan for health projects. The deadline of October 20 for the approval of the new form of the plan was missed, and the renegotiation with the European Commission is being extended, the former state secretary of the Ministry of Investments and European Projects, Marius Vasiliu, co-author of the MonitorPNRR Bulletin, confirmed for “Adevărul” “A new year without a single euro collected from the PNRR“.
According to him, technical discussions regarding the final list of projects continue, but the delay is explained by the lack of a clear picture of the status of each project at the level of the ministries. “Due to the lack of detailed information on the progress of the work, it was more difficult than anticipated to establish the final investment lists. The government had to apply the conditions of the European Commission to guarantee that the remaining projects can be completed by 31 August 2026 and avoid further penalties”Vasiliu explains.
Romania, at the end of the PNRR cycle, but without new money in 2025
With less than a year to go until the deadline for the completion of projects and reforms, Romania is facing a critical balance sheet. In the last four years, the country managed to collect only 10.7 billion euros, while it still has about 10 billion worth of projects to complete. In 2023 and 2024, not a single euro was settled from the requests submitted in those years, and the scenario is repeated in 2025.
“The delays accumulated in recent years, the refusal to make certain reforms, the weak administrative capacity and the lack of coordination ended up costing us”, it is shown in the MonitorPNRR analysis. The authors describe the current right moment “a mixture of improvisation and hope” in which Romania tries to save as much as possible from investments before the final deadline of August 2026.
ECOFIN could approve the renegotiation in November
The former secretary of state estimates that the last lists will be sent to the European Commission in the next period, and the final document could be approved at the level of the ECOFIN Council in November. “The renegotiation will most likely be formally approved next month. But even in this optimistic scenario, the actual payments will not come in until 2025.”said Vasiliu.
The renegotiation process, which began in the summer of 2024, was thought of as an emergency solution to avoid the loss of funds. The government proposed the transfer of some projects to grants and the simplification of some milestones, but the procedure was prolonged beyond all estimates. The delay in approval has direct effects on the budget deficit, because part of the current payments must be covered from the national budget.
How funding for hospitals has been phased out
In the initial PNRR, approved by the European Commission in 2021, Romania had 2 billion euros available for investments in the development of public hospital infrastructure. The plan provided for 25 public hospitals equipped with equipment and materials that contribute to reducing the risk of nosocomial infections, 25 intensive care units for critical newborn patients and at least 25 medical units or public hospitals that were to be built or expanded through the PNRR.
At the time of the renegotiation led by the PSD-PNL government, in 2023, 740 million euros were cut from the hospital component. Five new hospitals were completely eliminated, and another project, which was to upgrade an existing facility, was canceled. Following these changes, the number of funded hospitals dropped to 19, and in the current 2025 renegotiation the list will be reduced again to include only projects that can be completed by August 2026.
“The government had to cut projects with a high risk of non-completion. In the PNRR, only investments with a degree of progress over 30%, certified by work statements, remain. In total, they add up to 3,175 projects worth 9.7 billion lei”Vasiliu explains.
What investments are left standing
In the field of health, active investments through the PNRR include family medical practices, community assistance centers, outpatient units, ATI departments for newborns, medical equipment and apparatus, as well as the digitization of institutions subordinate to the Ministry of Health.
Some of the hospitals originally provided for in the PNRR were transferred to other European programs. The Minister of European Funds, Dragoș Pîslaru, announced that only eight hospitals will continue through the PNRR, and another nine will be financed through the Health Program 2021-2027. Among those preserved are the Cluj Emergency Hospital, Craiova Hospital, Bistrița, Constanța, Târgu Mureș, Balotești, Sibiu and “Zerlendi” from Bucharest.
Marius Vasiliu, former secretary of state at European Investments. Photo: Inquam photos
Digitization of the medical system, affected by payment delays
Another major project, the Health Insurance IT Platform, valued at 100 million euros, is also financed by the PNRR. The Minister of Health, Alexandru Rogobete, announced that the first modules will be operational by the end of this year, and the full platform should be ready by August 2026.
“The 4th payment request cannot be submitted in 2025, which means that the Romanian budget will continue to support current payments from its own resources. The sums will only be replenished after the request is approved. The PIAS project is not directly affected, but the general delay will create additional pressure on the ministries’ budgets”Vasiliu explains.
Risks and penalties for missed milestones
A major risk is represented by the decision of the Constitutional Court regarding the reform of special pensions, associated with milestone 215 of the PNRR. “The European Commission will most likely find that the milestone is not met, and the most drastic sanction would be the definitive loss of the 230 million euros suspended from request 3”says Vasiliu.
He draws attention to the fact that, if the ministries do not speed up the execution of the already contracted works, Romania not only risks losing funds, but could also incur additional penalties. “What is important now is that all ministries involved are 100% focused on the investments undertaken. Otherwise, not only do we lose money, but we will also pay additional penalties”concludes the former secretary of state.
Major losses in health investments
The MonitorPNRR analysis shows that Romania lost projects of over 7 billion euros, including important investments in health, highways, railways, sewerage works in disadvantaged localities and telemedicine projects. The lack of a public list of eliminated or postponed investments maintains uncertainty regarding which projects will receive funding.
“Instead of a clear list of what remains and what disappears from the PNRR, we had an opaque renegotiation”note the authors of the analysis. The government approved a memorandum in August that obliges ministries to report the status of each investment. Investments with a degree of implementation below 30% should be eliminated, but some projects still remained in the investment plan.
How did it get here?
PNRR Monitor specialists point out that PNRR problems are not only related to the political context, but also to the lack of an efficient administrative infrastructure. In four years, a functional national dashboard for monitoring milestones and investments has not been developed, although it had been promised as early as 2021. The lack of qualified staff in project management, the permanent turnover of teams in ministries and the long duration of tenders have blocked implementation. In some cases, the documentation had to be completely redone, and the increase in construction costs led to partial contract terminations.
“The original architecture of the plan was thought to be simple and centralized, but it turned into a cumbersome mechanism, with responsibilities divided between ministries and institutions that claimed roles only to benefit from salary increases”note the authors of MonitorPNRR.
