On 8 September 2023, Romania submitted to Brussels a request to amend its recovery and resilience plan and add a new chapter on the REPowerEU programme.

In the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the energy and agri-food crises, the European Commission has initiated REPowerEU, a plan to ensure Europe’s independence from Russian fossil fuels by 2030.

The REPowerEU programme proposes new measures to increase Romania’s energy resilience and independence, such as: energy efficiency in residential and public buildings, modernisation and digitalisation of the national electricity transmission network, training courses to acquire skills in the green energy field, using state-owned non-productive land as acceleration zones for renewable energy production, increasing green energy production etc.

The amendment provides for the removal of four investments from the original plan and the modification of approximately 70 measures.

The Commission will assess whether the amended plan fulfils all the assessment criteria set out in the Recovery and Resilience Facility Regulation. If the Commission’s assessment is positive, it will present a proposal for amendments to take account of changes to the Romanian plan, and finally Member States will have four weeks to approve the Commission’s assessment.