Cabinet meeting of May 9, 2022

Statements by Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă at the start of the Cabinet meeting

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Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă: Good afternoon! We celebrate today Europe Day and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all Romanians for their firmly expressed will and for coming together to meet this national objective which offered us the chance to join the most important development and welfare project, European Union. During 15 years of membership, Romanian citizens had the possibility to enjoy all rights, travel freely, study, work and invest. We benefited in all these years from the investment of over 40 billion euros in the national economy and also other 80 billion need to be accessed, which can lead to country's development and bridge the gaps between our country and Western Europe.

I want to mention that some time ago, we have just concluded the meeting of the Interministerial Committee in which we examined the fulfilment status of PNRR milestones and targets. It was a very good opportunity when we could identify both achievements and what we further need to do. Minister Bolos will lead a delegation this week to Brussels so that all elements will be clarified and as we pledged, we can start 57 of the 69 calls of our portfolio until late June. As such, there have been established mechanisms and procedures so that we can access these funds which, as I said, represent a big opportunity for us to continue to develop as citizens expect from us.

In these 15 years, we can unmistakably say that Romanians deserve to be part of this European family and as I outlined, and I repeat even now, the merit for the fulfilment of this desideratum does not solely rest with political leaders, those in charge of reforms implementation, but with every citizen who proved to have only one option, a pro-European, democratic one, the option of a free world.

Surely, at this moment, beyond our concerns for prosperity and development, we face this concern generated by the Russian Federation's invasion of Ukraine, and concern for citizens' safety and national security, and the European Union ensures us a full security framework. Europe showed more than ever its solidarity, its capacity to join efforts for a common purpose, and the cohesion between the Member States also proved we can support joint interests. Romanians did nothing else but prove through their generosity that they can open their homes to Ukrainian citizens who took refuge in our country, that they are able of solidarity gestures like all the EU citizens. They showed the wisdom of our nation that has all time been oriented towards freedom and peace.

On the agenda of today's Cabinet meeting, there are two extremely important ordinances for our governmental programme. Both are part of the regulations the Government assumed to implement the programme "Support for Romania", and in this way, we managed to shape the whole set of measures for the package to become operational.

The first emergency ordinance we will adopt today refers to the vouchers to be granted to citizens in need, they can benefit from hot meals or food products. It is about 3 million persons who will benefit from these vouchers once every two months. It is a measure whose total value is nearly 3.1 billion, and 50 percent of this money will come from European funds.

The second emergency ordinance helps us further support investment projects. It is a government solution through which we manage to come up with nearly 5.2 billion lei government aid in less than a month. The ordinance we approve today refers to the second tranche, totalling 3.5 billion lei. And these are funds originating in the funds allocated by the European Union. It is a measure that brings benefits in the medium and long term and we also deem it as very important, because it leads to the completion of important investment objectives we are discussing here over 7,000 projects that will be completed through this measure. Thank you! Once again "Happy anniversary, Romania!", "Happy anniversary, Romania in the European Union!".