In a press release, Luhan said the European Commission on Thursday adopted a law package on future structural and cohesion funds for 2014-2020, intended to support economic growth and employment in Europe. A special budget of EUR40 billion has been earmarked for projects to provide transport, energy and communications services, plus about EUR10 billion for transports through the Cohesion Fund.
The MEP also said that negotiations are underway for the EU’s budget for the 2014-2020 period. The Commission has proposed allotting EUR376 billion for the seven years, including EUR162.6 billion for convergence (less developed) regions, EUR38.9 billion for transition regions, EUR53.1 billion for competitiveness (developed) regions, EUR11.7 billion for territorial cooperation and EUR68.7 billion for the Cohesion Fund. The European Social Fund will receive about EUR84 billion.
“It is very important that we have succeeded to allocate EUR40 billion for transports especially. Romania and other new member states have poor infrastructure and special attention must be paid to continuing investments in all types of infrastructure: transport, IT&C, energy, social, education, for research and development, and environmental. This way we will ensure adequate accessibility for all European citizens and provide equal opportunities for development,” said Luhan, member of the European Parliament’s committee for regional development.
He added that Romania’s regions are among those less developed, with the exception of Bucharest and Ilfov county, which will be considered transition regions as of 2014, their GDP per capita being higher than 75% of the EU average. Community co-financing will remain set to a maximum of 85% for all of Romania’s development regions, except in Bucharest-Ilfov, where the maximum will be 60%.