Romanian president Traian Basescu and prime minister Victor Ponta exchanged ironies after the EU summit on how successful the negotiation for the EU budget for 2014-2020 has been, without considering the fact that they are both responsible for Romania attracting only 12% of the structural funds allocated for the country under the current budget.
Under the most optimistic scenario, Romania’s absorption of structural funds will reach 25% by 2015, and if this low rate is kept, Romania will lose another EUR16.5 billion of the structural funds of the next programming period, i.e. three quarters of the EUR21.8 billion that the president has come back from Brussels with. On the plus side, Romania’s absorption of agriculture EU funds is already 50% and will probably reach 70-80%, so agriculture funds will definitely be pouring in between 2014-2020.
The president on Sunday even gave the example of funds for the Transports program, where the absorption rate is 6.4% for 2007-2013, without mentioning that this low absorption happened during his term as president, and that during most of this period ministers from his PDL party were in charge.
Romania will get EUR39.8 billion (in structural funds and funds for agriculture) for the next programming period, while Poland will get EUR106 billion, which means 25% less per capita.
So, was the result of the last week’s EU summit where the future budget was agreed a success or a failure for Romania? This is hotly disputed:
President Traian Basescu, who led Romania’s delegation to the summit, says it was a success because Romania obtained an 18% increase in funds, while the EU’s general budget fell 3.5%.
On the other hand, prime minister Victor Ponta says it was a failure because Romania lost EUR9 billion as opposed to what had been decided last autumn (EUR48 billion).
As part of the Common Agriculture Policy (direct payments and rural development), Romania was allocated EUR17.5 billion, up from EUR13.8 billion between 2007 and 2013. However, for the “rural development” pillar within CAP, allocations are EUR1 billion or 13.5% lower. Romania’s allocation is EUR7.1 billion, from EUR8.2 billion in the current programming period.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)