In a right of reply it sent to Ziarul Financiar, the Government’s press office said ZF used inaccurate information when it wrote, on Friday, that Romania contributed EUR4.5 billion to EU’s budget but took back only EUR600 million in structural funds, which makes it a net contributor to the EU’s budget, thus supporting incomparably stronger economies such as Germany’s or France’s.
ZF’s calculations on Romania’s contribution to the EU budget started from the main contribution that fuels the EU’s budget, namely the country’s obligation to pay 1% of its gross domestic product (GDP) to the Union, and the sums drawn from structural and cohesion funds (EUR19.2 billion in 2007-2013) as revealed by statistics and confirmed by the head of the European Commission, which show that Romania got just 3% of overall funds from the EU reimbursed (the percentage stands at 4.5% in the government’s statistical data).
3% of EUR19.2 billion means EUR600 million in structural and
cohesion funds drawn by Romania.
In the right of reply sent to ZF, the Government said Romania has
drawn EUR10.5 billion from the EU’s budget since 2007 until now,
out of which “2.5 billion in pre-accession funds and 8 billion in
post-accession funds”.
Hence, the Government adds up all the funds received by Romania,
while ZF only referred to the structural funds that are exclusively
aimed at the development of the growth and at closing the gap
against the EU.
Pre-accession funds should not be included here, just like the direct payments going to agriculture. This happens as agriculture funds are largely subsidies granted to all European farmers and drawing them does not entail major efforts (such as structural funds do, which require projects, time and money).