European Commissioner Corina Cretu is worried about the planning and implementation of transport infrastructure projects in Romania.
The main opposition party in Romania, the National Liberal Party, is calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Viorica Dancila and the Ministers of Transport and European Funds, Lucian Sova and Rovana Plumb respectively, whom they hold responsible for the poor rate of absorption of European funds devoted to transport.
The President of the Chamber of Deputies' Transport Committee, the Liberal MP Lucian Bode, spoke about a letter of European Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Cretu addressed to the Prime Minister and the two Ministers regarding the infrastructure projects that have been implemented. The main concern is linked with the inability of the Government of Romania and the two aforementioned ministries to attract funds under the 2014-2020 Large Infrastructure Operational Programme. Romania has been allotted some €5.1 billion from the Cohesion and the European Regional Development funds. Lucian Bode told us more:
"The tone of this letter is imperative for the authorities in Bucharest. The letter makes it clear that we will use the European funds devoted to infrastructure, because we only have four major projects. We will lose money because the authorities are unable to draft projects. Brussels wants the two ministries to get involved in the process of implementing infrastructure projects. We are calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Viorica Dancila, Transport Minister Lucian Sova and the Minister of European Funds Rovana Plumb."
Minister Sova, however, claims that Commissioner Cretu's letter does not refer to the activity of this government and says the level of absorbing European funds in the field of infrastructure is already double the country's capacity for implementing such projects. Lucian Sova:
"Right now, the Ministry of Transport already is running infrastructure projects at 200% its capacity. I believe Corina Cretu's letter refers to the period prior to the current Government's term in office. In terms of absorption, the Large Infrastructure Operational Programme is also managing other fields, which is why Commissioner Cretu referred to it in the first place."
In her letter, Commissioner Cretu says the process of drafting and submitting new projects for the current financial framework has reported significant delays. In the last four years, Romania has submitted only four such projects. To allow the absorption of budget allocations over the coming years, Romania needs to launch new projects on the ground. To this end, the authorities must give special attention to the budget for 2019 and the coming years to avoid the decommitment of European funds", Corina Cretu adds in her letter.
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