The Ministry of European Affairs has published on its website a list of 60 projects worth a total of EUR7.2 billion, with 90% of them, the equivalent of EUR6.6 billion, being environmental and transport projects. Most of them are at 0% to 10% completion, but they are due between 2012 and 2015. The 100 projects on the new list are worth over EUR10 billion, according to ZF estimates based on the average value of a project.
The 60-project list was announced by Prime Minister Emil Boc and confirmed by European Affairs Minister Leonard Orban, who is in charge of spending Romania’s remaining EU allowance of EUR18 billion.
Boc said, “The list will be posted on the government’s website so that any Romanian citizen can monitor the way in which a European project is being implemented in a concrete manner. Everyone in their community can follow the implementation schedule and whether it is being implemented in due time.”
How can any Romanian citizen actually identify a project like “Extension and rehabilitation of the water and used water infrastructure in Ilfov county?”
Minister Leonard Orban explains that the solution to present the situation on a county-by-county basis has been chosen in certain cases (the list also includes individual situations of investments in one single town) in order to simplify reports. He adds that any of these projects can be monitored and updated before others, with a further 100 projects to be added in the future, aside from the 100 included on the list on Wednesday evening.
The counties that will receive the most money for projects co-funded by the Government and the European Union are, according to ZF calculations based on the list of projects: Cluj (EUR337.4 million for sewerage and integrated waste management), Sibiu (EUR212.5 million for sewerage and integrated waste management), Iasi (EUR202.9 million for sewerage and the heating system), Constanta (EUR192.3 million for sewerage) and Brasov (EUR189.3 million for sewerage).
(English version by Daniela Stoican)