This is the target pursued by Gabriel Friptu, the head of the management authority in charge of POR.
“The rate of fund absorption allocated through the program is currently 7.4%-7.5% and I estimate it will reach nearly 14% if payments are cleared. For next year we estimate the amount will double and the absorption rate will reach around 30%,” Gabriel Friptu told ZF.
Romania desperately needs the money, given that foreign funding has become extremely expensive, and attracting EU funds has become the only solution to keep the economy going.
Between 2007 and 2013, Romania has EUR4.4 billion available through POR, with EUR3.7 billion allocated through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and the rest being the contribution from the state budget.
By the end of November this year, “clean” payments made by the European Commission for projects financed through POR amounted to EUR274 million, which corresponds to an absorption rate of 7.3%.
If it doubles by the end of the year, another EUR251 million will go into the economy, which means overall payments through POR will amount to EUR750 million at the end of next year – funds “cleared” by the European Union.
Contracts have been signed for almost 2,400 projects so far through POR, and the EU funds have been used to rehabilitate hospitals, schools and old people’s homes, as well as for city infrastructure and for micro-enterprises.
Payments for Axis 2 of POR, a program managed by the Development Ministry headed by Elena Udrea, were frozen by the European Commission back in July, after irregularities were found with certain projects at a routine check.
As a result of this, president Traian Basescu asked the government to suspend the sending of declarations of the spending that needed to be paid back by the European Commission for all seven operational programs in order not to risk losing European money if similar irregularities were found.
In the meantime, the projects were pursued with money borrowed from the Treasury, through the Finance Ministry, for which the state will have to pay interest if the European money is not cleared.
Since the government made the decision to suspend the sending of bills for payment, bills worth around EUR200 million sent through POR have been checked and ruled in order, but it is not known if Brussels will resume the payment process.
“At the moment we are expecting the Commission to pay bills worth around EUR200 million.” He says at the end of this week it will be known if the payments are cleared or not.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)