The European Parliament has overwhelmingly validated the report on the inclusion of the energy sector support programme, REPowerEU, in the recovery and resilience plans, while allowing them to be amended quickly to adapt to the challenges arising from the war in Ukraine. The optimisation of the plans will be possible thanks to an amendment tabled by MEP Victor Negrescu, together with his colleague Dan Nica, and approved by the Budgets Committee before the vote in the European Parliament.

“The European Parliament shows that it supports the need to adapt the recovery and resilience plans to the current context and recognises that the new challenges have affected the ability to implement the national plans in their previous form. In practice, a clear majority in the European legislature supports the need to optimise the plans, confirming the justified demands made repeatedly by representatives of the Social Democratic Party”, said MEP Victor Negrescu.

The swift amendment of the national recovery and resilience plans will also help shorten the period in which the European Commission will examine the changes requested by the Member States. It will also help Romania fulfil its obligations to access the European funds available under the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism.

Given that the current context of high inflation and rising prices affects European citizens suffering from energy poverty the most, MEP Victor Negrescu called for the measures included in the REPowerEU chapter to give adequate priority to their needs, so that our response will lead to a reduction of vulnerabilities as winter approaches.

He also made sure that the REPowerEU chapter will have measures to help improve energy efficiency including references to investment schemes specifically for vulnerable households, SMEs and micro-enterprises.

“The regulation, in the form proposed by the European Parliament, will now be negotiated with the Council, where we hope that all the European Parliament rapporteurs will work in the interest of the Member States and Romania, supporting this important point for the implementation of the recovery and resilience plans. The general priorities of this mechanism remain unchanged, and this flexibility facilitates the implementation, within the given timeframe, of the common objectives set at European level”, added MEP Victor Negrescu.