PRESS RELEASE 31.05.2022
While thousands of families in Romania are unable to find a place for their children in day-care centres, the Romanian state is about to miss, once again, a unique opportunity.
The Foundation for the Defense of the Citizen Against State Abuses (FACIAS), as part of the project "Transparency and Accountability - Monitoring the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP)", has identified yet another chapter of the plan that is about to be missed. The NRRP foresees significant investments for the construction, equipping and operationalization of 110 nurseries throughout the country, which would lead to the development of the early childhood education system.
The NRRP project is expected to build modern nurseries that would benefit almost 5,000 children, but there is already a significant gap between the deadlines set by the NRRP and the reality on the ground.
According to FACIAS information, the guidelines for the call for this project were in public debate from 6-16 May 2022, and there are now 30 days left for the submission of funding applications and the signing of contracts. The deadline for signing contracts with public operators (municipalities) for the construction of the 110 nurseries is 30 June 2022.
However, a month before the deadline, it is not even known where these nurseries will be built. With the experience of the last 30 years, it is hard to imagine that in a month's time all the bureaucratic hurdles will be overcome and the project will be able to proceed according to schedule.
Thus, Romania risks losing the funding of EUR 230 million through the NRRP and, more importantly, misses this opportunity that would alleviate the problem of places in nurseries, in the context in which the number of applications is much higher than the number of available places every year.
FACIAS, according to its statutory purpose, but also through its constant activity over the past 14 years, defends the rights of citizens and seeks to ensure transparency in the functioning of state institutions as a principle of democracy and the rule of law.
FACIAS Press Office