THE EUROPEAN FUNDS CONFERENCE / MINISTER EUGEN TEODOROVICI: "We are eliminating the excess regulation concerning access to European funds"

The excess regulation is one of the factors that have heavily slowed down the absorption of European funds, said Eugen Teodorovici, the minister of European Funds. He said: "For example, we have found that the private beneficiaries of the European funds are required to make calls for tenders, even though nothing like that is stipulated in the procedures of the European Union. The European Union only requires the holding of calls for tenders for the beneficiaries in the public system. I want to eliminate this obligation for the private beneficiaries. I hope that in the immediate near future, we will get the answer from the European Union on this matter and that the private companies will be able to execute the projects much quicker".

Minister Teodorovici said that he was optimistic about the speeding up of the absorption of European funds, following the steps he took this year, such as the simplification of the bureaucratic procedures: "I am aware that the current absorption rate of 15% is very low. We are ranked last in Europe. But the government has the political will to do whatever is necessary to increase the absorption rate. By the end of July, I want us to deal with all the projects which have not been assessed or implemented yet. This year we need to bill over 6 billion Euros to avoid the disengagement risk".

The Ministry of European Funds has taken all the necessary steps to extend by one year the period for the spending of the funds and is awaiting the answer of the European Commission in that regard.

Minister Teodorovici emphasized: "That does not mean that the final deadline which we need to meet for payments will change. If we don't spend as much as possible of the funds allocated this year, we are going to put pressure on the coming years. I don't want us to lose faith because of the problems with the absorption we've had so far. I think that we are capable of having a far better absorption and we have taken serious steps in that regard. The difference between us and other countries is pragmatism. Other countries have assumed certain decisions. We did not have the courage to do that over the last few years. These things must change".

The financial correction is currently of about 700 million in the programs financed using European funds, due to the problems the Commission uncovered in the public procurements which were executed. Eugen Teodorovici stressed: "There is a new European directive which is about to be completed concerning public procurement. The estimated deadline for its adoption is the end of September. We are tracking the amendment with our legislation, so we can have the government quickly pass this directive, together with its application norms".

The operational programs which are currently deadlocked concern Competitiveness (POS CCE) and Transports (POST). The Ministry is accelerating the evaluation of the several thousand projects of the POS CCE an will soon launch calls for the non-contracted funds. In this context, Eugen Teodorovici reminded that the ministry has signed the framework agreement with 39 companies for recruiting the experts for the evaluation and selection of the projects.

New calls have been launched for the POS DRU program (the development of human resources). Thus, in June, the companies which will access the amount of 350 million Euros are expected.

The Ministry of European Funds continues its interventions with the European Commission to be able to settle, out of the community funds allocated to the 2007-2013 period, the major infrastructure and environment projects, which have not been included in the programs and which are being executed funded using the public budget. Thus, Romania has the chance of attracting another 800 million Euros.