Absorption of EU funds in Romania, below expectations

In the first five months of this year, the estimations regarding the absorption of EU funds are below the initial expectations, according to the Romanian minister of EU funds, Eugen Teodorovici. “We will reach our target at the end of the year, of over EUR 3.5 billion in bills to the European Commission. In the first five months of the year, what we estimated is below the initial expectations, because there are many bills that’s didn’t arrive to us yet, from major companies, especially in transport and environment,” said the minister, cited by local Mediafax. He added that this year he will have talks with all construction companies and those who supervise these works. Referring to why these money from the European Commission are not spent, Teodorovici stated that one of the reasons is that there are companies that came and placed a bid with prices much lower than needed for those works, so now they are blocked. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com