The position of the European Parliament regarding the “REPowerEU” Plan to reduce energy dependence on the Russian Federation was adopted today by a large majority of votes in the Committee on Budget and the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the Parliament.

The result of the vote was 80 votes “for”, 6 “against” and 4 abstentions.

“REPowerEU is a new pillar to be added to Member States’ National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRPs) dedicated to energy investment. Romania will receive 1.3 billion euros from this new fund for investments in energy efficiency, reducing dependence on gas imports from the Russian Federation, improving energy infrastructure and investing in renewable energy sources. These non-reimbursable funds will be added to the approximately €30 billion that our country already receives for the National Recovery and Resilience Plan from the European Recovery and Resilience Mechanism,” said MEP Siegfried Muresan, European Parliament co-rapporteur for European affairs. Recovery and Resilience Mechanism Recovery and Resilience and the “REPowerEU” plan, according to a press release.

In the adopted position, the European Parliament requires that all member states receive 20% of the pre-financing when the European Commission and the EU Council approve the new RepowerEU components of the recovery plans.

Also, the position of the parliament envisages retroactive financing of investments in the energy sector from February 2022, the moment of the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine.

The position of the European Parliament also includes the provision that after the entry into force of this European regulation at the beginning of next year, Member States that have not yet accessed all the credits from their national recovery and resilience plans will have only 30 days at their disposal to notify the European Commission about its intention to get access to these funds. If they do not intend to access these funds, the respective states will lose priority in accessing the funds of the credit component.

“This is very important news for Romania, because our country has already announced its intention to access all loans, and if there is undistributed money from the loans of other states, we will be able to get additional loans on very good terms. for investments in the energy sector,” added MEP Siegfried Muresan.

Parliament also requests that in all member states this new pillar be developed with the involvement of local and regional authorities.

“Local authorities often know best what needs local communities have, which population groups and businesses need additional support. That is why the participation of local authorities is important,” said Siegfried Muresan.

The next step for the adoption of the “REPowerEU” Plan is a vote at the plenary session of the European Parliament. It will take place at the plenary session on November 9-10. After this stage, there will be final negotiations between the Parliament and the Council regarding the adoption of European legislation within the framework of RepowerEU.

The REPowerEU plan aims at a series of measures aimed at rapidly reducing Russia’s dependence on fossil fuels and accelerating the transition to a “green” system, while increasing the sustainability of the European Union’s energy system.