Romanian Minister for European Affairs targets EUR 6 bln EU funds after low absorption in first quarter

Romania’s Minister for European Affairs, Leonard Orban (in picture), recently said during a TV show that the target for EU funds absorption remains at EUR 6 billion by the end of 2012, three times over the amount recorded in the last five years. “The target remains EUR 6 billion, with EUR 3.5 billion from the cohesion policy. It’s true that in the first quarter the real absorbed amounts were not very high,” said Leonard Orban. Romania only absorbed EUR 194 million in EU funding in the first three months of this year, much below the targeted EUR 875 million, that would have allowed the Government to be in line for the EUR 3.5 billion target for this year. He also added that this process is limited, “with small steps, but step by step, we will succeed, I hope, to reach the goal we have proposed, namely to have a minimum 20 percent absorption rate on the cohesion area”. According to Leonard Orban, Romania had absorbed EU funds of EUR 1.2 billion by September, 2011. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com (photo source: European Commission)