Romania risks losing essential European funds for its development, as negotiations for the EU's new Multiannual Financial Framework 2028-2034 are in full swing, but Bucharest appears to have no clear plan and no voice representing Romania's interests at the negotiating table, warns SME Romania.
In a context marked by major financial and economic pressures on the Romanian business environment, European funds allocated through the future Multiannual Financial Framework 2028-2034 will play a decisive role in the country's recovery. The period coincides with an opportunity window during which Romania's economy could enter a recovery trend, a process that cannot occur without solid strategic funding, and the EU budget represents an indispensable resource in this scenario. „Decision-makers must understand that the stakes of these negotiations are too important to be neglected and that, this time, being alongside Romania concretely means fighting for European funds to reach where they produce the greatest real value, in the private business environment, the backbone of the economy. Local entrepreneurs have demonstrated, in the most difficult years, that they know how to create value where the state could not, and now, at the negotiation table in Brussels, the authorities have the obligation to represent them and defend their interests with the same firmness with which Romanian entrepreneurs defended jobs, investments, and businesses in times of crisis,” stated Florin Jianu, president of IMM Romania.
Otherwise, in a position paper regarding the Multiannual Financial Framework 2028-2034, IMM Romania requests that allocations for the domestic business environment be not only more significant but also favor entrepreneurs through clear performance criteria, stable rules, and drastically reduced bureaucracy. In this regard, IMM Romania asks that, starting from the next multiannual financial exercise, a „Safe Harbor” clause be applied to guarantee the separation of European funding intended for the private sector from political conditionality. Thus, beneficiaries who meet their technical objectives will be able to receive reimbursements on time, without being exposed to the risk of liquidity shortages.
Also, IMM Romania speaks out against the plan to place the Cohesion, Agriculture, and Social Funds under the single administrative umbrella of the National and Regional Partnership Plan (PPNR), considering that this approach will lead to excessive centralization of the decision-making process and will favor large state projects to the detriment of the private sector.
Targeted measures to avoid resource concentration in more developed states The IMM Romania also proposes that a „convergence bonus” be introduced in the future multiannual financial framework, more specifically the application of a mandatory additional score in centralized calls for projects that include partners from states with a GDP per capita below the EU average, as is the case with Romania. Companies from these states face higher capital costs, and in the absence of such a mechanism, the European competitiveness fund will only be successfully accessed by technological champions from more advanced states, thus deepening the industrial gap.
At the same time, IMM Romania is calling for a reserved quota of at least 20% of competitiveness funds for mid-cap companies and innovative SMEs, arguing that the current model of large-scale projects in transnational consortia excludes the majority of Romanian firms capable of conducting research and development.
Administrative simplification: single audit for validated beneficiaries and automatic mechanism for indexing grants to inflation
IMM Romania also requests a financing framework based on measurable performance, radical administrative simplification, and an authentic partnership regarding the allocation of European funds to the private sector. Specifically, the association demands the urgent completion of the MySMIS platform's interoperability with ANAF, ONRC, and REVISAL, as well as the mandatory implementation of the Unique Guide of Common Conditions for all financing programs, the application of the „Single Audit” principle to avoid repeated controls on already validated beneficiaries, and the introduction of an automatic grant indexing mechanism with inflation, so that projects are not blocked by bureaucracy or rising costs.
The business environment also proposes aligning European funds towards programs dedicated to increasing the competitiveness of SMEs, through investments in digitalization and AI technologies, energy efficiency and green transition, innovation, and integration into European value chains.