COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING DECISION of 18.12.2024 on the reduction of the amount of the second instalment of the loan support for Romania

acts signed on 14 August 2024 and 6 September 2024 were not signed with applicants from the reserve list. Instead, the contracts were signed following a new evaluation process which started on 17 May 2024, hence after the end of the aforementioned six-month deadline14. The Commission takes the view that the execution of contracts resulting from a separate evaluation process constitutes a new and distinct contractual agreement with applicants that were not part of the original tender process. On this basis, the Commission considers that the contracts signed on 14 August 2024 and 6 September 2024 do not qualify as measures taken by Romania within the six-month period prescribed by Article 24(8) of the Regulation (EU) 2021/241. (31) Therefore, as Romania has not taken the necessary measures within a period of six months from the suspension to satisfactorily fulfil milestone 129 constituting part of Romania’s request for payment, the Commission does not consider that milestone 129 is satisfactorily fulfilled. Nonetheless, in accordance with the methodology for the determination of payment suspension under the Recovery and Resilience Facility Regulation, the further progress made towards achieving the policy objective of the milestone through the conclusion of contracts for an installed capacity of 41.83 MW(H2) with an expected volume generated of at least 8 300 tons of renewable hydrogen should be reflected in a revision to the amount that was subject to suspension. As a result, the amount for the second instalment of the loan support to be 13 See Financing contracts No 153 and 154/29.12.2023 with OMV Petrom, Financing contract No 302/12.04.2024 with Interventii Active in Atmosfera and Financing contract No 320/19.06.2024 with Tehnomir. 14 See Order No 573/17.05.2024 issued by the Minister of Energy. EN 9 EN  disbursed should be increased and will be released to Romania with a separate Commission Implementing Decision. (32) After consideration of the observations of Romania and in line with the methodology for the determination of payment suspension under Regulation (EU) 2021/241, the amount should be recalculated, taking into account the following elements: (33) Milestone 129: Signature of contracts for the construction of at least 60 MW of new electrolysers capacity (i) The unit value for the milestone was derived by dividing the financial contribution made available to Romania in the Council Implementing Decision of EUR 14 942 153 000 by the number of milestones and targets in that Decision related to the loan support (210). (ii) A coefficient of 0.5 was applied to the milestone as it concerns an intermediary milestone that is followed by a subsequent target related to the same investment. (iii) a proportional reduction to the corrected unit value was applied to the milestone (a factor of 0.3028) as it concerns an investment milestone, and it is possible to evaluate the share of what has been achieved. Namely, contracts for an installed capacity of 41.83 MW(H2) were signed, representing a share of 69.72% of the target capacity of 60 MW(H2) from the milestone name. (iv) No upward adjustment of the corrected unit value was applied to the milestone as the investment is not considered by the Commission to be of major importance to justify any of the ratings underpinning the positive assessment of the RRP. In particular, in light of the Staff Working Document and the Council Implementing Decision the measure is not relevant to justify any of the ratings related to the assessment criteria of the recovery and resilience plan. (34) On this basis, following the assessment of the measures taken by Romania within a period of six months from the suspension decision and the observations provided, the amount of the reduction should be recalculated considering a proportional reduction compared to the amount suspended to account for the share of what has been achieved. As a result of the recalculation, an amount of EUR 10 772 581 should be reduced in accordance with Article 24(8) of Regulation (EU) 2021/241, HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: Article 1 Reduction of the loan support The loan support made available to Romania laid down in Article 3 of Council Implementing Decision of 29 October 2021 on the approval of the assessment of the recovery and resilience plan for Romania shall be reduced by EUR 10 772 581. This reduction shall be applied against the amount indicated in Section 2(2) (2) of the Annex to that Decision. EN 10 EN  Article 2 Addressee This Decision is addressed to Romania. Done at Brussels, 18.12.2024 For the Commission Valdis DOMBROVSKIS Member of the Commission EN 11 EN