​The government is keeping secret the status of the implementation of the 24 goals and milestones in the PNRR, which Romania expected to fulfill in the third quarter of this year, and Prime Minister Căușe asked to be ready by September 15. At least the distribution of 5G licenses, a milestone planned for this quarter, is not possible in the estimated time frame.

Chuke’s warning and how the implementation phase of the PNRR is kept secret

On August 18, Prime Minister Nicolae Chuke warned ministers not to de-prioritize the achievement of targets and benchmarks in the PNRR related to the 3rd quarter of this year, which he wants to close by mid-September. Chuke said the government would not approve any milestones or targets at the last two government meetings in September.

On the same day, HotNews.ro asked the Ministry of Investments and European Projects (MIPE), headed by Marcel Bolosh, to present the situation with all the yalopans and targets that should be closed this quarter and the stage of their implementation.

MIPE only recently submitted a list of all milestones and targets to be closed by the end of September, without, as usual, reporting the status of their implementation.

• “The status of achievement of goals and milestones will be communicated at the end of each quarter,” MIPE officials said.

The same response was sent on Thursday, September 8 by the government and Marcel Bolosh, who said that a new assessment of the implementation phase would be made on Monday, September 12, after which the government would announce the results.

Adevărul newspaper notes that they asked the government, where they received the same answer regarding the stage of implementation of the milestones and goals in the PNRR.

List of 24 targets and milestones: At least the distribution of 5G licenses is not possible in the estimated time frame

The Ministry under the leadership of Marcel Bolos sent HotNews.ro a list of all 24 milestones and targets in the PNRR.

• LIST OF 24 PNRR MILESTONES AND GOALS

The Ministry of Natural Resources has to achieve 4 milestones, the Ministry of Energy has 2 goals, the Ministry of Digital has 2 milestones, ANKOM – 1 milestone, the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Tourism has 4 milestones, MIPE has 1 milestone, the Ministry of Development has 2 milestones, the Ministry of Culture – 1 milestone, the Ministry of Labor – 1 milestone , SGG has 3 milestones and Ministry of Education also has 3 milestones.

Among all these milestones and goals, at least one cannot be achieved by the end of this month: “ANCOM allocation of rights to use the radio frequency spectrum”.

These are so-called 5G licenses because although the rights of use are granted in a “technology neutral” manner, operators are likely to use them primarily for the new 5G communications technology.

The auction procedure, in which the total value of the starting prices of license payments is 693 million eurosit hasn’t even started.

In July, all documents regarding the selection procedure for granting licenses for the use of radio frequencies in the 700, 1500, 2600 and 3400-3800 MHz bands were discussed, including a summary of comments received during the public consultation periodwere recently published by the regulatory body.

Among other things, it is also about the draft resolution of the Government on establishing the size of the minimum fee for the license for the granting of rights to use radio frequencies available in the ranges of 700 MHz, 1500 MHz, 2600 MHz and 3400-3800 MHz, as well as the terms of payment of the license fee.

On Wednesday, September 14, these documents will be adopted by the Advisory Council of ANCOM, and then the Government will adopt the draft RD on license fees, which is already at the approval stage.

When can licenses be issued and who is to blame for delays?

• “On the calendar of procedures, November is a realistic estimate for granting licenses to operators. December at the latest if there are other unforeseen delays,” Eduard Lovin, vice president of ANCOM, told HotNews.ro on Friday.

What caused these delays in the 5G auction?

• “Only legislative delays are to blame: first the delay of the law on the security of providers for 5G networks, and then the delay of the transposition of the Communications Code directive into Romanian law, which is now completed in July.
• Regarding the auction and the amounts that can be collected from the state budget, the estimates remain valid for the time being, with the caveat that the time, after these legislative delays, occurred during a period overlapping with various economic and financial crises, energy, geopolitical, military, etc., which , obviously affects the financial and economic capacity of the telecommunications industry.”, This was stated by the vice president of ANCOM for HotNews.ro.

HotNews.ro also asked the perspective of the Ministry of Digitalizationled by Sebastien Bourduilla, addressed the dangers of delaying the 5G tender and not reaching the PNRR milestone on time, and we will return when we have answers.

What are the risks if all milestones and goals are not closed by mid-September?

HotNews.ro also asked the Ministry of European Investments and Projects (MIPE) about what risks could arise if the main milestones and goals of the PNRR are not met by the end of September.

• “To meet the goals and milestones in September, the payment request will be submitted in the first quarter of 2023. In the event that all milestones and targets associated with the payment request are not satisfactorily met, the European Commission may order a partial payment with suspension of the difference between the unmet targets and milestones.
• In this situation, the Member State concerned has six months to take the necessary measures to ensure the fulfillment of the milestones/targets that were initially considered unfulfilled.”, This was reported by representatives of MIPE.

It remains to be seen how many of these milestones and targets will be realized within the estimated timeframe and what the consequences of missing some of these targets will be.

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