The European Commission (EC) has granted Romania EUR 800 million to help it finalize some big projects started during the 2007-2013 financial exercise.

The EC will finance ten projects from the transport, waste management, water and sewage infrastructure and natural disaster prevention.

“These projects are more than simple infrastructure investments, used efficiently they can become catalysts for local, regional and national development. This is why it’s more important that EU funds are used strategically and according to Romania’s investment priorities,” said Corina Cretu, the European Commissioner for Regional Policies.

The ten projects include finalizing the Brasov ring-road and the Sighisoara-Coslariu railway segment.

Corina Cretu said she would have a talk with the new prime minister on accelerating the EU funds absorption. She explained that Romania has made progresses in recent months in terms of project selection but the project implementation is still slow.

“There were many infrastructure projects that should have been finalized by 2015, then by 2017, but they haven’t been finalized. Many of these projects have been phased for the 2014-2020 period. The good news is that these projects will be finalized, but the bad news is that they consume from the 2014-2020 budget. Of the EUR 20 billion that we have for the 2014-2020 period, EUR 2.8 billion have been allotted for projects that should have been finalized in the previous financial exercise, especially in the transport sector."

editor@romania-insider.com