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Public procurement and EU funds

Urgent measures to unblock the absorption of European funds

The Fiscal Council formally asked the authorities to act quickly and decisively to unblock the absorption of European funds, warning of the risk of losing €5.2 billion through decommitment.

National institutionFiscal Council of Romania· 2025Partly implemented

The Fiscal Council's warnings

  • A risk of decommitment of €5.2 billion out of the €31 billion allocated from the 2021–2027 Structural and Cohesion Funds, if absorption does not speed up[3]
  • A major risk that the NRRP absorption rate stays well below the €28.5 billion allocation, with financial losses or even the return of some funds[3]
  • A risk that part of the spending already committed through contracted projects ends up financed from national rather than European sources, with major implications for fiscal consolidation[3]

The note's conclusion, approved by the plenary of the Fiscal Council on 21 February 2025: “The authorities must act quickly and decisively to unblock the absorption of European funds”[3].

Sources

Primary official sources; where we use the press (only when the official document is not public) we mark it. The links lead to the original document or to the report cited (titles are translated; the documents themselves are in Romanian unless stated).

  1. [1]

    Government of Romania — Press information on the normative acts adopted at the meeting of the Government of Romania on 14 August 2026 (in Romanian) (note on the implementation and absorption status of the 2021-2027 programmes funded by the Cohesion Policy)

    Published 14 August 2026 · Accessed 15 October 2026 · the original document(opens in a new tab)

  2. [2]

    Ministry of European Investments and Projects (MIPE) — Preliminary MIPE estimate on NRRP absorption (grants and loans) (in Romanian) (MIPE statement, independently confirmed by three press reports (mediafax.ro, sfin.ro, atlasnews.ro) with identical percentages; preliminary figure: MIPE states that the final result will be known only after the 6th (and last) payment request is submitted to the European Commission)

    Published 14 September 2026 · Accessed 15 October 2026 · the original document(opens in a new tab)

  3. [3]

    Fiscal Council of Romania — Note on the absorption of European funds (approved by the plenary of the Fiscal Council on 21 February 2025; figures based on Ministry of Finance data, at 31.12.2024)

    Published 21 February 2025 · Accessed 15 October 2026 · the original document(opens in a new tab)