While the country has not yet attracted the EU funds in full, its highway network is only 650 kilometers long and passenger trains travel at merely 43 kilometers per hour.
“There have been many problems with the SOP-T, from beneficiaries not submitting reimbursement claims, tenders conducted more or less properly and petitions challenging them afterwards to the poor management of the program. Steps have been taken in the past year that improved absorption,” said Cosmin Dragoi, managing partner of EU fund advisory firm M 27.
In 2007 and 2008, not a single euro came from Brussels as reimbursement for transport infrastructure works and the amounts attracted in 2010, 2011 and 2012 were low, less than EUR300 million together. Moreover, the allocation of SOP-T funds was suspended in the first half of last year, so all payments from Brussels for the country’s transport infrastructure were frozen. Reimbursement resumed last summer and by the end of the year Romania totaled EUR876 million in European Commission funds, less than 20% of the SOP-T allocation. Payments were higher this February, taking Romania’s absorption rate to 31.2% of the SOP-T funds or EUR1.38 billion euros.
Neither the European Fund Ministry, nor the Transport Ministry had answered ZF’s calls for comment on the SOP-T fund absorption progress by the time the story was ready for posting.
There are about 106 investment projects approved for funding via SOP-T at the moment, worth a total 16.5 billion lei (EUR3.7 billion) and 93 of them are contracts already signed worth RON15.7 billion, according the European Fund Ministry data. The biggest transport infrastructure projects include the Coslariu-Sighisoara railway, the Lugoj-Deva Highway (segment 1) and the subway line connecting western Bucharest district of Drumul Taberei to the city center. (EUR1=RON4.4990)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)