The main opposition party in Romania, the
\nNational Liberal Party, is calling for the resignation of Prime Minister
\nViorica Dancila and the Ministers of Transport and European Funds, Lucian Sova
\nand Rovana Plumb respectively, whom they hold responsible for the poor rate of
\nabsorption of European funds devoted to transport. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The President of the Chamber of Deputies’
\nTransport Committee, the Liberal MP Lucian Bode, spoke about a letter of
\nEuropean Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Cretu addressed to the Prime
\nMinister and the two Ministers regarding the infrastructure projects that have
\nbeen implemented. The main concern is linked with the inability of the
\nGovernment of Romania and the two aforementioned ministries to attract funds
\nunder the 2014-2020 Large Infrastructure Operational Programme. Romania has been
\nallotted some \u20ac5.1 billion from the Cohesion and the European Regional
\nDevelopment funds. Lucian Bode told us more:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The tone of this letter is imperative for the
\nauthorities in Bucharest. The letter makes it clear that we will use the
\nEuropean funds devoted to infrastructure, because we only have four major
\nprojects. We will lose money because the authorities are unable to draft
\nprojects. Brussels wants the two ministries to get involved in the process of
\nimplementing infrastructure projects. We are calling for the resignation of
\nPrime Minister Viorica Dancila, Transport Minister Lucian Sova and the Minister
\nof European Funds Rovana Plumb.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Minister Sova, however, claims that
\nCommissioner Cretu’s letter does not refer to the activity of this government and
\nsays the level of absorbing European funds in the field of infrastructure is
\nalready double the country’s capacity for implementing such projects. Lucian
\nSova:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Right now, the Ministry of Transport already
\nis running infrastructure projects at 200% its capacity. I believe Corina
\nCretu’s letter refers to the period prior to the current Government’s term in
\noffice. In terms of absorption, the Large Infrastructure Operational Programme
\nis also managing other fields, which is why Commissioner Cretu referred to it
\nin the first place.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In her letter, Commissioner Cretu says the
\nprocess of drafting and submitting new projects for the current financial
\nframework has reported significant delays. In the last four years, Romania has
\nsubmitted only four such projects. To allow the absorption of budget
\nallocations over the coming years, Romania needs to launch new projects on the
\nground. To this end, the authorities must give special attention to the budget
\nfor 2019 and the coming years to avoid the decommitment of European funds,
\nCorina Cretu adds in her letter. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
European Commissioner Corina Cretu is worried about the planning and implementation of transport infrastructure projects in Romania.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":77672,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[39326],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-77671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-european-fund-absorption"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n