The post COVID-19 economic recovery represents a unique opportunity for setting Romania on a path of sustainable economic growth and for ensuring its competitiveness in a future decarbonised EU economy.
The ten priorities underlined in this paper refer to a set of key priority areas, not to specific projects. It is important that recovery and resilience plans go beyond the logic of mere project lists. Given the unpredictability and uncertainty of the timing and shape of the post-COVID-19 economic recovery, it is important that plans have a sufficient degree of flexibility in their design.
This means they should identify key areas where investments are most needed and would have the highest return. Moreover, it also needs to be ensured that the newly available money of the Recovery and Resilience Facility is not merely used for funded, pre-existing lists of projects.
While the list is not exhaustive and some issues may be overlapping, it is meant to stimulate discussion on how to best respond to the extraordinary challenge of the post COVID-19 recovery in a way that can set the Romanian economy on a path of sustainable growth and high competitiveness in a future decarbonised EU economy.
Recovery plans should equally seek to avoid investments that are not aligned with the objectives of the EGD, investments which could turn into stranded assets, hence a burden on public budgets later on Romania’s recovery plans should be designed to maximise the economic impact of the upcoming recovery funding, while simultaneously safeguarding national long-term climate ambitions, by focusing on future-proof investments and a smart regulatory framework, in line with the European Green Deal.