In Bulgaria, where he went several hours after leaving Romania, Herman van Rompuy attended the opening of a EUR122 million subway line paid for with European funds. The amount includes the construction of a 2.4-kilometer line and 18 subway cars.
In Romania, Rompuy saw President Basescu and delivered a speech in the Parliament. It is yet unknown whether anyone even thought about inviting the European leader to an event that should have shown him exactly what European funds are used for, and even if they had, the Romanian authorities would not have had any project part of the transport program completed to show to van Rompuy.
The Ministry of European Affairs said the only two projects completed so far in the Sectoral Operational Program Transport entailed Danube depth measurements (EUR1.5 million) and environmental protection during infrastructure works (EUR300,000).
Bulgaria had attracted 20.8% of the EU funds by the end of March, while the absorption rate for the transport program stood at 25.8%. The total absorption rate in Romania is below the 6.5% of the EU funds, and 6.1% of the money available for Transport have been paid.
Meanwhile the biggest projects completed by Romania in the first five years of European funding availability include four million euros worth of training programs, Danube depth measurements, programs to help discriminated women or the writing of a governmental strategy intended to support the business sector – these are but some of the biggest projects completed in the first five years of European funds availability.
Ziarul Financiar requested a list of the EU-funded projects completed five years after accession from the Ministry of European Affairs. The data shows that the Transports and Environment Ministries, which should have been building highways, sewer systems or landfills, have not managed to complete even a single project that would have had a major impact. The Transports Ministry completed two projects, one for measuring the Danube depths and another for the environment protection in case of infrastructure works. None of the five projects that the Environment Ministry completed includes a landfill or a sewer system.
“The problem was that after the authorities created the operational programs and the axes, they did not have a prioritization mechanism in place. The authority coordinating structural instruments, the institution that supervised absorption until the creation of the Ministry of European Affairs could not tell a ministry what projects were more or less important,” explains EU fund consultant Dragos Pislaru. “In the absence of initial prioritization, the management authorities implemented projects as they came.”
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)