THE "BURSA" CONFERENCES: EUROPEAN FUNDS - DIRECT CONSULTING  Finance Minister: Romania is slow in its absorption of structural funds

"Romania is rather slow in its absorption of structural funds", said Sebastian Vlădescu, the Minister of Finance.

In his opinion these funds constitute a significant foreign resource, given our country"s current situation, but he mentioned that "Romania is a net beneficiary of the budget of the European Community".

among some of the factors that hinder the absorption of structural and cohesion funds include, according to the Finance Minister, the bureaucracy of the system, the ineptitude of the system"s employees and political influence.

At the same time, banks aren"t too willing to finance the projects which are looking to attract European funds, because some of them aren"t bankable.

The state is trying to change the system and the minister of Finance said that consultants must show more responsibility. The National Credit Guarantee Fund for Small and Medium Enterprises (FNGCIMM) will see its capital increased by 40-50 million Euros.

Referring to Romania"s situation, Sebastian Vlădescu said that Romania is "in a far more difficult situation than we thought and there are no signs that in three months, in six months or after 1 year the context will be any better. For these reasons we have taken measures that are extremely costly - both on a human and political level".

In Europe the minister said that things are just as difficult: "When I meet my peers in other European countries I can see that they have the same worries. Statistical numbers show that this hope of economic recovery has no basis in reality". According to him, Europe took too long to react: "I am happy that Europe is taking action, even if it is not acting as quickly as she should. Romania shouldn"t react when it is too late, like Greece did". As such, Europe needs around 750 billion Euros just to "preserve stability", with part of that amount to be borrowed from the IMF.