Romania is targeted by an infringement procedure, started on Wednesday by the European Commission. Our country has two months to respond and remedy the reported deficiencies.
The European Commission has started an infringement procedure against Romania
The European Commission decided on Wednesday to start an infringement procedure against Romania, sending an official letter of delay, following the finding that the country does not correctly comply with the rules of Directive 2011/7 on combating late payments in commercial transactions.
Delays in making payments have been identified as having a significant impact on the liquidity and financial stability of businesses in Romania. According to the press release issued by the Community Executive, these delays not only affect the competitiveness and profitability of companies, but can also lead to the bankruptcy of independent pharmacies in the country.
European Union directives require public authorities to pay their invoices within 30 calendar days, which can be extended up to a maximum of 60 calendar days in the case of public entities providing medical services.
The letter of delay is motivated by significant delays in payments to independent pharmacies for medicines dispensed to patients through the national health insurance scheme. These delays jeopardize the financial stability of pharmacies, which are directly accountable to distributors and other parties involved in the supply chain.
Following the issuance of the letter of delay, Romania has two months to respond and remedy the deficiencies reported by the Commission. If the answer is not considered satisfactory, the Commission may decide to proceed to the next stage of the infringement procedure, by issuing a reasoned opinion.
Issues for Romania, Bulgaria and Spain related to public procurement legislation
The European Commission also decided to open an infringement procedure by sending a letter of formal notice for Romania and issued reasoned opinions regarding Bulgaria and Spain for non-compliance with public procurement legislation.
The rules governing public procurement contracts and concession contracts (Directive 2014/23/EU, Directive 2014/24/EU and Directive 2014/25/EU) had to be transposed by the member states into domestic law by April 18, 2016.
These directives aim to open up public markets to real competition between businesses across the EU and ensure the best value for money for public procurement.
The Commission is targeting some issues related to, among others, the restriction of operators’ rights in the case of Romania and the exclusion of private hospitals from the EU rules on public procurement even when they are partially financed from public funds in the case of Bulgaria.
In particular, the Spanish legislation does not respect the scope of the directives in terms of the type of contracting authorities, contracts and contract modifications to be covered.
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