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Spending target for 2015 is 596,000 Euro/day
The official absorption rate for 2007-2013 EU Structural funds stood at 51.87% on January 23rd. To take full advantage of these grants, Romania would have to maintain a spending pace of 596,000 euro/day throughout 2015. With total value of contracted projects reaching 122% of the 19 billion Euros allocated to Romania between 2007-2013, the key problem lies in the very compressed calendar for implementing ongoing projects.
Romanian authorities present creative approach toward boosting absorption
Minister for EU Funds, Eugen Teodorovici, may have surprised Commission officials with a set of measures aimed at maximizing EU funds absorption in 2015. Among these, segmenting ongoing strategic projects so that they could be partly funded under the 2014-2020 budgetary perspective, applying retroactive payments for projects already financed from other sources (such as was the case of several highway segments), as well as the introduction of new eligible expenses. With these measures, Romania may be testing the limits of the Commission’s flexibility, despite Brussels’ strong political will to work towards ensuring that laggard Member States such as Romania make the most of EU Funds. The European Commission would prefer that Romania makes use of new proposals such as the SME European Investment Fund, an instrument that Bucharest has so far displayed little interest in.
Procurement problems continue to plague implementation of EU Funded projects
Romania has yet to spend any EU money for 2014-2020, with last week bringing no official news with regard to the calendar for launching new calls for projects. Meantime, unofficial sources suggest a possible delay in launching the first financing measures under Competitiveness Operational Programme, in case the ongoing Brussels investigation into alleged breaches of procurement legislation for projects funded under Axis 3 of the 2007-2013 Increase of Economic Competitiveness programme is extended.
Procurement practices came under criticism in the Commission report released under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM). The latest document, published in Brussels last week, highlights the lack of transparency as well as the numerous suspicions of irregularities concerning public procurement procedures, particularly at local level.
New agriculture funds could wait for the Spring
As we anticipated in our last week report, the Romanian authorities’ stated intention to launch in February the first financing schemes under the new National Rural Development Programme (NRDP) have proven to be overly optimistic. European Commission announced they will give the green light for Romania’ NRDP in March at the earliest, meaning that any calls for projects open before the programme approval would be done at Romania’s own risk.
