Romania's acting PM expects Parliament to approve five PNRR laws next week

Romania's acting prime minister Ilie Bolojan said Parliament is expected to debate and approve five of the six laws linked to milestones under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) during its extraordinary session next week, while the draft public sector Wage Law is likely to be postponed until early August.

Romania expects to receive a total of EUR 4.5 billion in Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) funding linked to the six legislative measures, with the Wage Law accounting for EUR 770 million.

Speaking after a government meeting on July 23, Bolojan said the Wage Law remained the only draft that had not yet reached a stage allowing parliamentary debate.

"One project that has not yet been finalised is the one regarding wages in the budgetary sector," Bolojan said, as reported by Cursdeguvernare.ro, adding that discussions continued on July 23 and would continue over the coming days.

He rejected criticism from the opposition that postponing the legislation would restrain public sector wage growth. According to Bolojan, the absence of the law would not reduce payroll costs because the expected across-the-board indexation of public sector wages by around 7%, in line with annual inflation, would increase the wage bill by roughly RON 12 billion, broadly equivalent to the fiscal impact of the new law. He argued that the reform would instead redistribute wage increases to bring salaries closer to the targeted pay structure.

"If I were to make a personal assessment, I believe that, at the stage we are in, it is unlikely that we will have a debate on this project next week. However, I believe that, in two or three days, the discussions could be concluded, so that, in a new extraordinary session, at the beginning of August, in the first week, the Parliament could also discuss this very important law," Bolojan said.

The extraordinary parliamentary session scheduled for next week is intended to approve legislation required to meet PNRR milestones and secure the release of EU recovery funds.

iulian@romania-insider.com

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