Romania obtained almost 1.4 billion euro for projects of energy independence and combating energy poverty, after the adoption of the REpowerEU proposal in the Ecofin Council, the country being the sixth EU beneficiary of the new allocated funds, announced the Minister of Finance, Adrian Câciu.
The finance ministers of the European Union reached a general agreement on the REPowerEU initiative, during the Economic and Financial Affairs Council meeting held in Luxembourg on Tuesday.
“The adoption in the Ecofin Council of the REPowerEU proposal demonstrates what, in fact, EU solidarity means and the quick, firm and coordinated reaction to the overlapping crises we are facing. Romania will be the sixth beneficiary from the EU of the new funds allocated through REpowerEU, with a sum of approximately 1.4 billion euros. The funds will be secured from the auction of greenhouse gas emissions certificates related to the Innovation Fund (75%) and from the advance of the auction of nationally allocated ETS certificates related to the period 2027-2030 (25%). In during the negotiations, the amount obtained by Romania practically doubled, compared to the initial proposal of the European Commission from May this year, when the allocation was approximately 720 million euro,” said Adrian Câciu, according to a press release of the Ministry of Finance
Through the Regulation approved on Tuesday in the Ecofin Council, a proposal also supported by Romania is accepted regarding the possibility of including in the new REpowerEU chapter some measures regarding energy independence from the initial PNRR, under the conditions of the recalculation of the pool of grants from the initial allocation of the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism. The regulation also offers the possibility of combating energy poverty by financing aid schemes for disadvantaged categories.
“At the same time, it is foreseen the possibility of granting pre-financing for the member states that request it, within the limit of a ceiling of one billion euro for all EU states. I hope that today’s vote in the Ecofin Council will speed up the adoption of the REpowerEU Regulation and in the European Parliament, so as to allow us more investments that lead to increasing energy independence and combating energy poverty. At the same time, the adoption of REpowerEU will also facilitate the rapid updating of the Recovery and Resilience Plans,” the Finance Minister added.
The topics that completed the agenda of the Ecofin meeting concerned the economic and financial impact of Russia’s aggression on Ukraine, the second evaluation report on the implementation of the RRF, the preparation of the meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors of the G20 and the annual meeting of the IMF, the conclusions of the Council on financing the fight against climate change in view of the 27th UN Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP 27), which will take place in Sharm El-Sheikh from 6 to 18 November 2022, and the role of fiscal and non-fiscal of EU customs.