The notification will come under the form of letters addressed by the European Commissioner for Regional Development Johannes Hahn, and will refer to all four operational programs, namely transports, competitiveness, regional and environment for which the EC suspended payments as of July 1, in view of performing audits.
According to sources, the two programs, Transports and Competitiveness, will enter pre-suspension procedure, which means payments will be blocked for another two months, until Romania remedies all deficiencies acknowledged by the Commission following the audit.
The transports program benefits from EUR5.7 billion European funds inflow during financial year 2007/2013, from which the EC reimbursed only EUR295 million, namely at a real absorption rate of 6.46%. The competitiveness program benefits from EUR2.55 billion inflow, and accounts for an absorption rate of 6.77% or only EUR173 million.