EU Funds Min Plumb: Romania’s absorption rate of EU funds – 20.3pct; EU average – 22pct

Romania’s absorption rate of European funds is about 20.3pct, as compared to the EU average of 22pct, EU Funds Minister Rovana Plumb said on Tuesday at Victoria Palace. “At present, through the Cohesion Policy, 6.4 billion euro entered Romania and, in total, together with direct funding, the direct payments to farmers, 11 billion euro. We have launched funding lines of 25.3 billion euro and projects worth 33 billion euro have been submitted. The 25.3 billion euro represents 90pct of the total allocation from the cohesion funds managed by the Ministry of European Funds and the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Administration. The contracting rate has risen since 2017 from 5pct to 53.3pct, so 10 times,” Plumb explained, according to Agerpres. She added that “the absorption rate of European funds in Romania is 20.3pct, compared to the European average of 22pct”. “We have sent 14 major projects to the European Commission, of which 13 are already signed, approved and one is currently under evaluation in the European Commission. Of the 14 major projects submitted to the European Commission on transport infrastructure, a major project of 2 billion euro stands out, namely the Gurasada-Simeria railway infrastructure, and the other major project, which is the largest in the European Union, relates to the water and waste water infrastructure, has a value of 499 million euro and is managed by the water company in Constanta, RAJA,” said Rovana Plumb. Regarding the statement that no major project has been sent to the European Commission so far in the transport sector, she said that “Romania has sent to the European Commission 14 major projects amounting to 3.78 billion euro, that is 75pct of the total allocation”. According to the minister, among the applications submitted, “all were approved, except for the 6th Metro Line”. “By the end of the year, we will send major infrastructure projects worth 2.5 billion euro,” Plumb said. She added that all the figures presented were “the effort made by the PSD-ALDE  government.” “In other words, what has not been done since the start of the current programming period, we have managed since taking over power. I also remind you that PSD, when in power, since May 2012, made up for the delays in the previous programming period, which was nine years, during which time the European money could be spent,” Rovana Plumb mentioned. The minister reminded that in May 2012, the sixth year of programming, the absorption rate was 7pct, and in three years Romania reached 90pct. “In the current programming period, we are in the fifth year since the beginning of this period and we have a 20pct absorption rate of European funds   “We’ve decided phasing in construction of three regional hospitals, with EU and  national contribution”   Minister of European Funds Rovana Plumb, declared on Tuesday that, at governmental level, it was decided to phase in the construction of the three regional hospitals, given the allocation from European funds from the current scheduling period, as well as the national allocation of 150 million euro. “Regarding the regional hospitals, in order to avoid any sort of confusion – the Ministry of Health benefits from technical assistance from the European Investment Bank. This technical assistance provides both the technical documentation required for the construction and the endowment of the hospitals, as well as the actual way in which these hospitals should be built. The technical documentation, namely the feasibility studies, technical projects, execution project, design, mapping out services, amounts to 120 million euro for all three hospitals. (…) The construction and endowment costs for each hospital brings us to an average of 400 million euro per hospital. And then, given the financial allocation from European funds, on the current scheduling period, for the three regional hospitals, of 150 million euro EU contribution and 150 million euro Romania’s contribution, we have decided to phase in the construction of these hospitals in the sense that from the current scheduling period we will pay the technical documentation, the entire preparation package for the construction of the hospitals, given the period of time that stretches somewhere to the half of 2020 with the preparation of these hospitals’ construction, we have taken into account the phasing in for the next scheduling period as well, that is due to begin in 2021,” Rovana Plumb explained, at Victoria Palace. According to the minister, the Government “does not rule out the construction of regional hospitals that are financed through the public-private partnership.” “Why? Because this year we adopted the public-private partnership Law, and from the public budget, the public money, the state budget, from non-reimbursable European funds we can ensure this type of financing. Let us not forget that Romania has in its governing program of PSD a number of eight regional hospitals and one republican hospital,” Rovana Plumb mentioned.

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