Romania "absorbs" European funds the hardest of all countries

According to the the authorities in Bucharest, the absorption of the European funds are slowed down by the existence of over 100 institutions and intermediary organizations that manage them and a few tens of laws which control them.

Community forums, but also financial credit institutions have emphasised that although all programs and governmental strategies have focused on attracting and spending European money, especially in the last period of time, the authorities seem to have a hard time finding a solution to this problem, which has been shown numerous times, by the community forums, but also by the financial credit institutions.

A delegation of the European Parliament will be arriving in Romania on Wednesday to witness firsthand how the European funding programs are being implemented.

Romania has at its disposal, for the 2007-2013 period, over 19 billion Euros, out of which 8,67 billion Euros are available for the first three years, namely until the end of this year.

Up until the present, the absorption rate has been of only15 percent.

This particular matter can be explained by the huge number of public institutions responsible for the European funding and also by the languid coordination between them, according to a study made by the National Authority for the Regulation and Monitoring of Public Acquisitions.

There are 75 institutions, 67 normative documents, 33 intermediary organizations and seven management authorities.

According to Bogdan Lehe, the president of the National Council for Solving Litigations, very often different organization handle the exact same matter, which leads to an overlap in attributions and hinders the system.

"To my mind, as long as we don't create a flexible and clear action system, we will be facing the same low level of structural funds in 2011 and will be asking ourselves how we managed to arrive to this point and why we haven't been able to solve the problem", stated Bogdan Lehe.

According to his statement, up until recently, a barrier in the proper absorption of the European money had been the huge number of appeals.

Restructuring at a institutional level - "a solution".

If in the past the procedures were blocked because it used to last even a year to receive the answer of an appeal , nowadays the aforementioned must be given in 19 days maximum.

Be that as it may, money are not being spent.

The president of the National Authority for the Regulation and Monitoring of Public Acquisitions, Cristina Traila, considers that restructuring at an institutional level the entire system and the establishment of a single authority might help Romania to recover the delay recorded in the absorption of the European funding.

Concerning this matter, a first analysis has already been made, and the proposal has been presented to the Ministry of Finance.

'We were never able to find the moment for restructuring. If we wait for a few more years, we will be in 2013 and, frankly, I don't know how much money there will be for absorbing at that moment, if we don't take action now. I hope that this initiative will materialize in the near future,' said Cristina Traila.

The European Commission has recently approved 33 major projects, out of which 26 on environment, six on transportation and one on energy.

The total value is of approximately three billion Euros.

Translated by: Laura Bosnea,
MA Student, MTTLC, University of Bucharest