THE "EUROPEAN FUNDS" CONFERENCE - 6TH EDITION / CLAUDIA IONESCU, ADRBI: "For an effective management of the EU funds, the procedures must be simplified"

In order to have an increasingly effective management of the EU funds, the procedures must be made simpler and compliance must be increased, according to Claudia Ionescu, the head of the Bucharest - Ilfov Department for Regional Promotion and Investments (ADRBI).

She said that the main difficulties encountered in the process of absorbing the money from the European Union are the ways of organizing public auctions, low financing and the lack of expertise of the management team.

A number of 700 projects have been submitted through the Regio program, said Claudia Ionescu, who mentioned that the amount that was allocated for this program in 2007-2013 period was 395 million Euros, while the amount for which reimbursement was approved was 620 million lei.

"We are hoping to double the rate of absorption this year", she said. She mentioned that among the newest projects conducted by the ADRBI are those concerning the thermal rehabilitation of apartment buildings, the rehabilitation and modernization of school infrastructure and supporting microenterprises.

In order to absorb the European funds successfully we have to comply with all the procedures required by the Intermediary Entities and by the Management Authorities, adapt the economic and legislative conditions, apply effective project management, increase the economic and social role of urban centers, improve accessibility, increase the quality of social infrastructure of regions and the competitiveness of regions as business locations and increase the contribution of tourism to the development of regions.