Romania’s EU Funds Minister and Romanian EC Commissioner clash on Facebook over absorption rate

Romania’s EU funds absorption rate for the 2014-2020 programming period amounted to 0.18%, at the end of May, not zero, EU Funds Minister Cristian Ghinea wrote on his Facebook page. Romania got EUR 57 million worth of intermediary payment from the European Commission this year after in 2014 and 2015 it didn't draw any money, according to official EC data Ghinea presented. He replied to Corina Cretu, the EU Regional Policy Commissioner, who wrote on her Facebook page that she was worried about Romania’s slow start in implementing the 2014-2020 funds and about the zero absorption rate. “As I’ve said on numerous occasions, I’m worried about the slow start in implementing projects for the 2014-2020 period. Romania currently has a 0% absorption rate for EU funds in the 2014-2020 budgetary exercise but I know that Romanian authorities have been making sustained efforts to address this issue. The European Commission has been and will continue supporting Romania, as we do with all member states when they face difficulties,” Corina Cretu wrote on August 2. Minister Chinea replied saying that the figures presented on Corina Cretu’s Facebook page differed from the official figures of the European Commission. He presented several official documents which showed that Romania had an overall absorption rate of 0.18% at the end of May, of the EUR 31.3 billion allotted to it in the 2014-2020 period. By comparison, the 28 EU member states had an overall absorption rate of 1.7% at the same date. The absorption rate in Bulgaria was 0.07% and in Hungary it was 0%, while Poland had 0.87%, and the Czech Republic – 1.15%. “I expect that Ms. Cretu’s Facebook expresses similar concerns about the rest of the EU countries,” Ghinea said. Ghenea said that the implementation rate was not relevant at the beginning of the financial exercise. It is more useful to talk about how to prepare the projects, he added. The minister also said that the former Government, led by Victor Ponta, didn’t do anything about the low absorption rate, and that Romania had worse results than the EU average. He added that the EU Regional Policy Commissioner hadn’t worried about Romania’s implementation rate during the Ponta mandate. Corina Cretu and Victor Ponta are both from the Social Democrat Party (PSD). Corina Cretu wrote a comment to Ghinea’s Facebook post saying that all she wanted was that Romania didn’t lose the EU funds allotted to it. She also mentioned that the zero absorption rate referred to the funds she managed, the European Development Fund and the Cohesion Fund. Romania has zero EU fund absorption from the 2014-2020 allocation editor@romania-insider.com