EU funds will shrink, Romanian adviser warns at Concordia Summit 2026

Trust as the bottleneck

Prime Minister Luca Niculescu told the Concordia Summit 2026 on Friday, 6 November, that Romania has savings, access to European funds, skilled people and companies competing on international markets, but that a "capital of trust" must be rebuilt before these resources can be put to work. The summit, organised by the employers' confederation Concordia under the theme "How we activate Romania's capital", is in its second edition. Niculescu said trust is hard to earn but can disappear quickly.

“It is earned with difficulty, in a complicated way, but it can be lost very quickly, it can be lost in a single night”

Niculescu acknowledged that companies had to absorb changes to state rules, on top of political and financial crises, the pandemic, energy shocks and inflation. He said the private sector had carried much of the burden of economic development over the past 20 years, and proposed treating EU accession as the starting point of that period.

Fewer EU funds, more domestic capital

Radu Burnete, presidential adviser for economic and social issues and a former executive director of Concordia, told the summit that the state will no longer have money for many programmes and subsidies. He said transfers of "tens of billions" from the EU over the past 20 years will not keep the same volume in negotiations on the next multiannual EU budget. Burnete described the economy as going through "a hard year" under pressure from two large wars and domestic decisions. He argued that fiscal consolidation is not optional, since the state's borrowing costs would otherwise make the whole economy uncompetitive. Non-bank financing, in his view, must become a priority, and he described the domestic capital market as underdeveloped, with rudimentary instruments and low liquidity. He proposed simpler legislation, more sophisticated instruments and a central counterparty that would allow derivatives trading. Burnete also said that although Romania has "fantastic" energy resources, it has no regional energy champion, and he pointed to PKN Orlen, which the article describes as Poland's largest company, as an example.

Affordable homes as a new national product

Concordia president Dan Șucu proposed affordable housing as Romania's new national product, modelled on the Prima Casă programme launched after the 2008-2009 financial crisis. He said that in 2010-2011 trust and optimism had disappeared from the market, and that a partnership between business and citizens produced Prima Casă, which moved thousands of young people into new homes. Șucu called for Romania to move from "Made in Romania" to "Creat în România" (created in Romania) so it can compete globally. He said Romania's GDP per capita, then below half the EU average, is now around 80% of it, and that machinery and equipment make up 47% of goods exports. Șucu gave no details on cost, financing or timeline for the housing plan.

“Trust is the most underestimated form of capital”

Șucu said companies have already moved to the next stage while the state has not. Concordia submitted proposals on energy, labour, domestic capital and simplification, and he said many had entered the government programme, which he called "an important step".

What the state should change

Niculescu set out three directions in which the government wants to show change through deeds. The first is predictability, with clear rules and a time horizon for companies to plan their activity. The second is a state that keeps pace with the economy, through digitalisation, simpler procedures and more efficient administration. The third is discipline in managing public money, because the state cannot ask the private sector for responsibility and efficiency while failing to apply them itself. He said these are the state's responsibilities, not those of entrepreneurs, and he invited business to bring forward public policy proposals.

“When we ask companies to become more efficient, state institutions must make exactly the same effort”