Political war over the absorption of EU funds

The government and the opposition have come up wit ha new reason for a dispute: the absorption of EU funds. The levels of incompetence are now being debated, the question that each side is throwing at the other is: "Who absorbed less funds". The matter is extremely serious, in the current economic and financial climate: these funds which we are unable to attract, could very well represent a true lifebuoy for certain economic areas. Embroiled in their political war, the government members have forgotten to deal with palpable issues over the last few years.

An attack from the PDL on the subject, elicited a quick response from the government. There is no real concern to deal with the problem, just in passing the blame to the other faction. First PDL vice-president Cristian Preda has openly criticized the current government on this subject, claiming that since the new government was appointed attracting funds has been completely ignored: "Drastic sanctions are expected when it comes to the absorption of European funds. The members of the BPN of the PDL have reviewed various sectoral programs and in the coming days, we will present, what happened with the European funds in each case. Sadly, what we can all see, is that since the Ponta government has come into office, no more European funds are coming into Romania. Because we don't want the Romanian society to pay the price because of this ideological drift of the USL. Like I said, everyone can see that since Victor Ponta was appointed, the European funds seem to have disappeared completely from Romania. It is a matter of government responsibility which needs to be assumed".

The government has responded to these attacks, in a press release, claiming that the problem of EU funds was caused by the PDL governments: "All the current problems, when it comes to the European funds, have been caused precisely by the PDL governments, in other words, by the very politicians who are now complaining about irregularities. Hence, the accusations of Cristian Preda are not just typical political behavior, but they are also hypocritical. Either Mr. Preda has incorrect information, or his intentions are purely demagogical. We tend to believe it's both. The current government has been managing European funds for three months, whereas the Governments of the PDL have been dealing with this subject for the last 3-4 years. At the present time, all the problems notified by the European institutions, including the suspension of payments, have their origins in the frauds and irregularities which were committed in the earlier years! There is no problem when it comes to the projects which were begun in these three months. Or, this reality is clearly known by the people who initiated this attack". In the press release, the Government also "reminds" Cristian Preda that tens of public calls for tenders through the SEAP electronic system, including those funded through European funds, "have been rigged" over the last few years by the PDL and that the best known such case is that of the ANRMAP. Another major issue is the inadequate spending of the public funds. Based on these conclusions, the European Commission has decided to apply significant financial sanctions both for the projects where irregularities were uncovered, as well horizontal financial sanctions at the Operational Program level, corrections which will strain the state budget. The executive announces that it will continue to predominantly finance European funds, because stopping or slowing down their pace of implementation will not be able to generate invoices and at the moment of the solving of the deficiencies uncovered by the European Commission, Romania will not be able to require the repayment of those expenses. Also delaying the completion of a certain type of projects could lead to substantial fines.

Regardless of the political disputes which are passing the blame from one faction to the other, one thing is certain, Romania ranks near the bottom when it comes to the absorption of European funds, and all of these arguments do not provide any solutions for dealing with the problem.