Romania loses EUR 3 bln EU funds for transport and environment on procurement problems

The EU programmes for Transport and Environment have lost EUR 3 billion because the public procurement management hasn’t been respected, said Emanoil Dascalu, state secretary within the EU Funds Ministry. The operational sectorial programme for environment saw corrections of 10% whereas the operational sectorial programme for transport recorded cuts of 20% of the approved expenditure financed by the EU. Romania has even had highways built without a building permit, the state secretary said in a conference on infrastructure organized by local Capital magazine. Romania was allocated EUR 4.2 billion via the 2007-2013 EU programme for Transport but attracted only EUR 2.6 billion. The allocation for the 2007-2013 EU programme for Environment reached EUR 4.4 billion, but the actual absorption totaled EUR 2.9 billion. There are also several suspended projects that haven’t been finalized in due time and will have to return the EU funds they have already received if the authorities don’t find the money to finalize them. Romania’s real EU absorption rate reaches 59% in February editor@romania-insider.com