Romanian Prime Minister Social Democrat Victor Ponta presented in Parliament the Partnership Agreement with the European Union. Criticized by the Liberal-Democrat opposition for its lack of vision, the documents provides for the future use of European Structural and Investment Funds in order to promote competitiveness, convergence and cooperation. According to the Prime Minister, under the new partnership European money will be used to mitigate the serious discrepancies between the country\u2019s various regions. Ponta has pointed out that Romania is clearly disfavoured in the 2014-2020 Structural Fund budget.<\/p>\n
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Victor Ponta: \u201cIn terms of money allotted per capita, Romania got approximately 1.000 euros per capita, while the Czech Republic and Hungary got 2.000 euros per capita. We are at a clear disadvantage, since we were basically given half of what our neighbours got. We could have negotiated a better deal<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Victor Ponta has pleaded for a large involvement of Parliament in decisions concerning European funding, and recalled that the absorption of these funds has tripled with the gradual reset of sectoral programmes. Due to the mismanagement of funds, the European Commission has suspended all funds allotted to Romania under these programmes for more than a year. Even so, our country\u2019s rate of absorption has improved considerably, standing at 24% at present. Moreover, Social-Democrats estimate an absorption rate of 30% by the end of the year. In addition, on the very day Ponta presented the multi-annual financial mechanism for the next seven years European authorities unblocked funding to Romania under the Sectoral Operational Programme Increasing Economic Competitiveness. On the other hand, Liberal MP Alexandru Nazare has criticized the document:<\/p>\n
Alexandru Nazare: \u201cIt is an agreement that should have been faultless, but instead is nothing but a bunch of meaningless statistics and charts. We\u2019ve sent a useless 200-page document to Brussels. This is about quality, and the document has none. What are Romania\u2019s economic growth engines? On what will we rely in the next seven years<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n
Competitiveness, infrastructure, resources, administration and governance are the lawmakers\u2019 main priorities for the 2014-2020 period. They say European funds can be absorbed massively and correctly, although not through useless quarrel.<\/p>\n
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