European Funds for Romania
Roxana Vasile, 22.05.2018, 14:58
The European Commissioner for European Funds Corina Creţu has traveled to Romania frequently, of late, to warn the central and local authorities that sustained efforts are needed to speed up the absorption of European funds and to cut back on the risk of losing the substantial amounts of community money allotted to Romania. However, these funds should be spent based on certain projects that should bridge the gaps separating Romania from the other EU countries. Besides the lack of interest, some of the causes for the current situation are the red tape, which blocks many actions, the Romanian additional legislation in the field and the contestation of tender results, which involves long settlement deadlines in court.
Commissioner Corian Creţu: “I have always said that administrative capacity is more important than the money itself. In the recent discussions which I have held with the prime minister and the government representatives, I have pointed out to this very necessity of urgently tackling these issues, namely simplifying procedures, employing competent people, speeding up assessment and contracting of projects and providing support to beneficiaries or applicants.”
During her visit to Bacău, in eastern Romania, Commissioner Creţu joined the PM Viorica Dăncilă for a meeting with the mayors of 39 of Romania’s county seats that receive direct European funds for development, urging them to send quality projects to Brussels. According to Corina Creţu, Romania was not ready to access European funds for such projects in January 2007 when it joined the EU. But the time has not run up yet. In a communiqué made public prior to her visit to Romania, Commissioner Creţu said that over one billion Euros would be invested in urban development in Romania, and the European Commission was ready to offer the necessary support to the Romanian authorities for these resources to be used more efficiently and faster. PM Viorica Dăncilă announced that the public purchase law would be modified with a view to reducing the deadlines for solving the contestations made after the tenders for European funds.
PM Viorica Dăncilă: “We also intend to make projects for highways. We intend to build highways using European funds, and we’ll also rely on the public-private partnership law that has already been published in the Official Gazette.”
Recently Corian Creţu has expressed concern over Romania risking to lose substantial European funds for transports.
