National Defence Minister Radu Miruta estimated that the value of production carried out in Romania from projects financed under the SAFE instrument will total 3.5-4 billion euros.
He said that SAFE runs 21 new procurement programmes, of which the Ministry of Defence manages projects worth 9.53 billion euros.
"We have 11 projects representing around 70% of the 9.53 billion euros, that is somewhere between 6 and 6.5 billion euros, from which the Ministry of Economy is to tell us what percentage it requests to be localised in the national defence industry. The Ministry of Defence is a client of these products. The Ministry of Defence does not produce, but interacts with the national defence industry or the private sector in order to acquire these products. (...) Somewhere between 50-60% I believe is the average level of localisation of these productions in Romania," Miruta told the press in a statement at Parliament.
Romania is using SAFE funds to "revive" plants in the national defence industry that had been "put into dormancy," Miruta also said.
"The idea that 'nothing is produced in Romania' is meant to create all sorts of fears, that money is being spent on something that does not remain in Romania. (...) Let us ask ourselves how the sums of money channelled through the Ministry of Defence over the past 20 years have been spent and why today, in the factories of the national defence industry, we have trees growing instead of state-of-the-art technology. And let us each make, in our own minds, a retrospective of the party that managed and oversaw the Ministry of Economy and the defence industry," he said.
For individual procurements, contracts will be signed by 30 May. Otherwise, the funds will be lost, Miruta said.
"We are awaiting from the Ministry of Economy and the Prime Minister's Chancellery these localisation percentages. I understand from General Plesa that some steps have been taken in recent days. (...) As Minister of Defence, I do not interact with the criteria by which companies are selected. There is an extremely clear set of regulations," he said.
Regarding the partnership signed with Ukraine a few days ago on drone production, Miruta said the project can be implemented "very quickly." This project is also part of the SAFE Programme.
"The European Commission has approved this project on condition of co-production with a Ukrainian partner. Otherwise, we would not have received these funds. What interests me is to produce in Romania, in co-production with Ukraine, a model that has proven successful on the battlefield in Ukraine. (...) If the European Commission considers that this project is an individual procurement solely by the Romanian state, the deadline is the end of May. If it considers it a joint procurement (...) it will be deemed that there is no longer a May deadline. The only remaining limit is to complete delivery of the products by 2030," he said.
Regarding a possible withdrawal of Poland from the SAFE programme, Miruta explained that Romania's situation is different. Poland has the financial capacity to access funds from the banking market under conditions identical to those in SAFE, due to its stronger financial position.
"Romania is not in that position. For Romania, accessing funds from SAFE is roughly twice to two and a half times more advantageous than accessing the same funds through loans from the free market," he said.
Comentează