English
The focus in the coming period will be on the simplification of EU grants absorption procedures, as the issues uncovered so far in that regard concern bureaucracy and public procurement, according to Claudia Ionescu, the head of the Regional Promotion and Investments Department of the Bucharest-Ilfov Agency for Regional Development (ADRBI).
She also mentioned that some measures that are very useful for microenterprises have already been taken. Claudia Ionescu told us: "Measures for simplifying repayments have been found. On the first call for projects, made in 2008, potential beneficiaries were being asked to co-finance approximately 40%. In 2008, when the crisis came, many viable projects did not have the money needed for co-financing, and the beneficiaries have been forced to abandon those projects. Later, on the second call for projects, the decision was made, which was applicable nationwide, for SMEs and microenterprises to be 100% backed, so that they wouldn't need to come up with a portion of the financing".
Claudia Ionescu also told us that there more than 600 such projects, which are on their second appeal, of which approximately 270 have been contracted and 193 have been completed.
Mrs. Ionescu stressed that, in the Bucharest-Ilfov region, all these projects have been evaluated, with the development of various businesses using European funds, in sectors such as medicine, equipment and more. "This year we had a larger volume of work, because we a greater number of projects that were submitted and placed on the backup list. All the projects placed on the backup list have been evaluated and contracts were signed for the best of them", he told us.
Following the implementation period of the Regio 2007-2013 program, bureaucracy in the project submission and implementation has been reduced, legislation concerning public acquisitions has been simplified and the qualifications of consultants and of the members of the management teams that implement the Regio projects have been improved.
For the coming European budget, the Regional Operational Program (POR) is being discussed by the European Commission, and the debates will be resumed in Romania, at which point certain corrections will be made before this program's budget is approved by the Commission.
1250 projects have been submitted on Axes 4 and 5 of the Regional Operational Program in the Bucharest-Ilfov region between 2007 and 2013, of which 456 were contracted and 601 completed.
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