Florin Jianu: Over a thousand projects risk losing European funding

More than a thousand projects are at risk of losing European funding because they will not be completed until December 31, 2023, said yesterday, Florin Jianu, the president of the National Council of Small and Medium Enterprises in Romania (CNIPMMR), in a show on DCNews Tv .

Florin Jianu stated: "Many small and medium-sized enterprises from various sectors of activity have been affected as a result of the conflict in Ukraine. I am referring, for example, to tourism in the Danube Delta, which had a 30-40% decrease in 2023 compared to previous years. We have to help these people. Our leaders need to go to Brussels and ask for funds for these small and medium enterprises. Or on the principle that what is in hand is not a lie, at least to extend some of the funds that are made available to us. For example, there are investment funds at the moment from the Regional Operational Program (POR), where a number of a thousand companies and a thousand projects that at the end of the year will be affected because they will not be able to close the investments they have proposed. The government should go to Brussels to negotiate an extension of these programmes, here we all understand certain contextual factors. So this would be one of the proposals that we put on the table of the governors during this period".

The President of CNIPMMR also said that the Government must come during this period with a support package for small and medium-sized enterprises and establish for each field of activity the total value of the allocated funds.

Regarding the extension of the funding on the former European multiannual financial framework 2014-2020 (+3), the request addressed by Florin Jianu to the Government is hard to believe that it will be able to be fulfilled as long as the European Commission has not given any sign that the respective period will extend Furthermore, last week, in Strasbourg, Adina Vălean, the European Commissioner for Transport, stated that our country risks losing 300 million euros allocated for the railway infrastructure due to the non-execution of some works, works which apparently will not be completed even on December 31 2023, although the company that should execute them claims that the project will be ready.