Average Absorption of European funds
2017 is a crucial year for Romania with regard to attracting European money, says the European Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Cretu
Roxana Vasile, 09.05.2017, 13:29
On Monday, during a formal visit to her native Romania, the European Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Cretu launched the second campaign aimed at promoting successful European projects. Thanks to such projects, more than 50,000 jobs have been created in the past 10 years, and many schools and roads have been refurbished and built. However, Corina Cretu pointed out that the money used for those projects were part of the previous multiannual financial framework. European Commissioner Corina Cretu:
“For the 2007-2014 period, Romania had 19 billion to spend. It lost 2 billion; we are still waiting for the estimates of the Audit Court. According to our estimates, the absorption rate will stand somewhere between 90-91%, unless other big financial corrections are operated. The Commission has a few months to analyze the tons of invoices that were sent to us until March 2017, which was the deadline for submittal. But this is the estimate. It means that 17 billion entered Romania’s real economy, accounting for 5% of GDP”.
As the title of this new promotion campaign is ‘Success is catchy’, the European official hopes that Romania will benefit from such success stories and properly use the money earmarked under the current financial framework, especially considering that today, when half of the period has already passed, the absorption rate is 0. Brussels has funds, but it expects quality, mature projects, which can be implemented right away.
Therefore, the year 2017 is crucial for Romania with regard to attracting EU money. The invoices issued so far cover only 77% of the total amount allocated, which is the poorest performance in the whole of the EU. For the 2007-2014 period, 1 of the 2 billion Euros lost because of poor absorption were from transportation, and for the 2014-2020 programming period, the flagship project, namely the Sibiu-Pitesti motorway, which should cross the Southern Carpathians, has not managed to pass the feasibility study stage.
As regards the issues Romania is faced with when it comes to absorbing European money, the European Commissioner said that the main problems are the lack of administrative capacity and also the lack of good projects. Corina Cretu also said that Romania is the only European country that still submits hundreds of pages long projects, although Brussels encourages the submittal of such projects in an electronic format. Moreover, she voiced her disappointment that young people no longer try to access European funds, saying that the procedures are much too complicated. (Translated by M. Ignatescu)
