The Crisis could cut off Romania"s access to European Funds

Romania can"t afford to have a low rate of absorption of European funds, Benoit Nadler, an official of the Environmental Sectorial Operating Program (ESOP) with the European Commission, stated yesterday. Mr. Nadler explained, during the national ESOP conference: "The members of the European Parliament are already debating discussing the subject of the Community budget for 2013 - 2020. The international financial crisis which has seriously affected the big contributors to the EEC budget has led them to consider reducing their budget contributions starting in 2013. We expect the Ministers of Finance of said countries to request a reduction of the European funding earmarked to countries that fail to spend the funds they received by 2013. This is a very big risk for developing countries, and Romania can"t afford to lose any funding, especially as it has an infrastructure to develop".

Mr. Nadler has underlined that reducing the bureaucracy involved in the approval of the projects is an important step, which will shorten the time needed for accessing the funds, especially as there are difficult times ahead, because of the financial crisis. In turn, Silviu Stoica, State Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, has stated yesterday, that he does not expect the beneficiaries of the big infrastructure projects to face problems in securing the funding for co-financing or for the good execution of the works. Mr. Stoica has explained that the beneficiaries of the ESOP funds will receive a 15% advance payment of the total value of the project, which represents a substantial amount. The advance payment can be used to begin the execution of the works. The disbursement will take place as the contract progresses, without the need to spend the entire advance payment.