Romania has zero EU fund absorption from the 2014-2020 allocation

Romania hasn’t managed to draw any EU funds from the 2014-2020 financial allocation and the absorption rate estimated for the big programs for this year is zero, according to a memorandum discussed by the Government on Wednesday. The European Commission has allotted Romania over EUR 30 billion to spend in the 2014-2020 period. Romania’s Government has been asked to send to the European Commission its estimates on the EU funds it expects to draw in 2016 and 2017. So far, Romania hasn’t drawn any funds, according to the official document, quoted by Capital.ro. Moreover, the Government doesn’t expect to get any money this year through its biggest EU funded programmes: the one for big infrastructure projects (EUR 11.8 billion worth of funds) and the one for regional development (EUR 8.25 billion), according to the same document. According to the EU Funds Ministry, the programs have been blocked due to problems with the IT system, which is necessary accrediting the management authorities that coordinate the EU funded programmes. Without having these management authorities accredited with the European Commission, Romania can't send payment requests for 2014-2020 funds. EU funds minister Cristian Ghinea hopes to have the IT system functional in October. He says that former Prime Minister Victor Ponta and the IT firms coordinated by local MP Sebastian Ghita, which have made the existing IT system, are responsible for the current situation, according to a Facebook post. Meanwhile, the ministry has launched calls for projects through three operational programmes that don’t depend so much on the IT system, under which Romania hopes to draw some EUR 137 million worth of funds from the 2014-2020 allocation. He also said that the current Government has already drawn over EUR 2 billion worth of EU funds this year and that the amount for the whole year will be over EUR 3.2 billion. These are EU funds from the 2007-2013 allocation. Moreover, Ghinea says that in 2017 Romania will be able to get some EUR 3.6 billion worth of EU funds from the new allocation due to this Government's efforts. Romania’s EU funds absorption rate reaches 65.8% Romania uses its EU funds only on paper, ranks last in the region on actual absorption rate editor@romania-insider.com