CORINA CREŢU CONFIRMS: Zero absorption in the 2014-2020 budgetary exercise

Romania currently has an absorption rate of 0% of European funds a in the 2014-2020 budgetary exercise, European Commissioner for regional policies, social-democrat Corina Creţu said on August 2nd. She says that Romanian authorities are working hard to deal with the situation, as the current regional policy commissioner has expressed their concern for the slow start in the implementation of the projects.

Corina Creţu said on Facebook: "In the current programming period, more than 100 billion Euros are allocated to the urban development through European structural and investment funds. Thus, for the first time, 15 billion Euros will be managed directly by European cities. Romania gets the third largest allocation in terms of size, after Poland and Italy, for durable urban development. The Romanian government has decided that 20% of the total of European funds allocated during the current programming period to be managed directly by the local elected officials. More specifically, 39 towns - county residences - will manage directly a large portion of the EU funds for a sustainable urban development, playing a major part in the implementation of the cohesion policy.

By the end of my term, I want to see that cities in Romania have fully exploited the opportunity that they are granted through the current programming period.

For that purpose, we will be organizing in Bucharest, in the beginning of October, together with DG Regio, a special event dedicated to promoting all those opportunities, to which all the mayors of 39 Romanian cities will be invited, as well as mayors of other European capitals".

One of the priorities of the mandate of Corina Creţu, as European Regional Policies Commissioner, is the initiative concerning the less developed regions. Its objective is to support the less developed regions in helping them reach the others' level, by analyzing the factors that hinder economic growth in the areas in question and providing recommendations and assistance to exploit the existing potential for growth. In other words, the lesser developed regions will be helped to identify the obstacles that lie in the way of durable economic development, of infrastructure and innovation and then to find the best solutions to maximize the impact of European investments.

Romania and Poland are the first member states where pilot-projects have been implemented as part of this initiative, in two regions of each country, specifically in the North-West- North-East (Romania) and Swietokrzyskie - Podkarpackie (Poland).

Mrs. Creţu mentioned: "In Romania, I have personally launched this initiative in the beginning of March 2016, together with deputy prime-minister Vasile Dîncu. In collaboration with my services and with the help of the Common Center for Research of the European Commission, the development agencies of the two regions selected for the pilot phase have already prepared action plans for the measures which are set to be implemented in the following two years. Our efforts will focus on creating real connections between research, innovation and the business sector, as a fundamental element for increasing productivity, durable jobs and social cohesion. Another essential element of this initiative is the active involvement of all the regional actors: schools and universities, workforce occupancy organizations and unions, SMEs, investors, national and regional administrations, NGOs.

At the end of September, I will go to Iaşi, to talk to the authorities responsible for the current situation of the North-East Development Region and about the concrete steps that are going to be made as part of this pilot-project. I know that there is a good collaboration in that regard between the ministries and the management authorities in Romania, and I want for us to do everything we can to help this region develop".

In the 2007-2013 period, through the cohesion policy, Romania has been allocated 22.4 billion Euros of which over 85.8% has been absorbed (The European Regional Development Fund, The European social fund and the Cohesion Fund).

As for the Regional Operational Program (POR), for the 2007-2013 period, the absorption rate on July 27 was 92.36% including prefinancing and ongoing payments (payments made but not yet settled by the European Commission), out of a total contribution of the EU of 3,966 billion Euros through the European regional development fund.

In April, Aura Răducu has handed in her resignation as minister of European Funds, upon the request of prime-minister Dacian Cioloş.

This summer, the current minister of European funds, technocrat Cristian Ghinea harshly criticized deputy Sebastian Ghiţă and former prime-minister Victor Ponta, the one who nominated Corina Creţu for the position of European commissioner.

PSD MPs, including Ana Birchall, the head of the commission of European Affairs from the Chamber of Deputies, Eugen Teodorovici, former minister of the European Funds, Sebastian Ghiţă (independent deputy affiliated to the PSD group), have criticized Cristian Ghinea for the fact that Romania has zero absorption to the new structural and cohesion funds.