Romania and EU funds

There is one piece of information which couldn’t have passed unnoticed: Romania cashed-in 830 million Euro worth of structural and cohesion funds in one day alone, last week. The Romanian Ministry of European Funds says this is an absolute record, in the context in which the aforementioned amount, which Romania has asked to be reimbursed in 2013, is larger than the amounts received in any of the years 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Roxana Vasile, 24.02.2014, 14:48

Statistics on the sums of money reimbursed by the European Commission show that not a single Euro was cashed-in in 2007 and 2008; 0.14 billion Euros were cashed-in in 2009; 0.22 billions were granted in 2010 and 0.70 billion Euros were cashed-in in 2011. Things changed for the better in 2012, when Romania attracted 1.13 billion Euros, whereas in 2013 the total value of reimbursements amounted to 2.88 billion Euros. Actually, figures show that Romania ranks first at EU level in terms of the amounts reimbursed by the Commission last year. Thus, in 2013 Romania received by over 130% more money than in the whole 2008-2012 period.

This year, between January the 1st and February the 20th, Bucharest has already attracted 0.90 billion Euros for Sectoral Operational Programmes- Transport, Increase of Economic Competitiveness and Technical Assistance. This brings the total reimbursed amount at some 6 billion Euros. The reimbursement rate has exceeded the 31% level, while the current absorption rate stands at approximately 34%. A communiqué issued by the Romanian European Funds Ministry shows that the Romanian government has lately stepped up efforts to implement EU-funded projects, in order to make up for the time it lost until mid 2012. Ionut Micu, head of the Coordination Unit with the line ministry has further details:

Ionut Micu: “Huge efforts were made in 2013 not only to catch up on European funds absorption, but also to ensure a set of efficient measures and to create the framework for attracting future funds allotted to the state. Consequently, although the EU absorption rate for projects is currently standing at 33.5%, it is already 4 times higher than the rate registered in May 2012.”

For the economy to benefit from a strong support in terms of EU funds, the Romanian authorities plan to attract significantly larger sums of money under the 2014-2020 financial framework, from the very first years. Therefore, the relevant authorities are trying to implement solutions meant to reduce to a minimum the risk of losing money from the allocated funds.