At the current pace of attracting European money, Romania will attract only 38% of the 20 billion euros in structural funds available to it between 2007 and 2013, shows an analysis conducted by Dragoş Pîslaru, general manager of consultancy GEA Strategy&Consulting. The absorption rate is currently 3.2%. 2015 is the year when the last payments from the EU can be made for contracts signed previously, according to the "n plus 2" principle, although the budgetary years are 2007-2013.
The analysis was presented yesterday at the debate titled "EU are weighing costs and benefits," organised by the European Development Platform, a non-governmental organisation created by Daniel Dăianu, former finance minister and former EU parliamentarian of the PNL (National Liberal Party). The platform is intended to be a link between Romanian companies and the European administration.
Out of the 20 billion euros in structural funds, 4.25 billion euros are funds for human resources, 4.5 billion euros for infrastructure, 4 billion euros for the environment and the rest for other sectors such as SMEs. Romania has another 12 billion euros available for agriculture during this period.
Overall payments made for European programmes, which include both payments from the EU, pre-financing and payments from the Romanian state, rose from 600 million euros in December 2009 to 1.7 billion euros in December 2010 and are scheduled to rise to 4.7 billion euros in December 2011.
The study reveals that the funds would be fully absorbed in 2019 at this rate, so Romania would need another six years to get all the money from the EU.
At the current pace of attracting European money, Romania will attract only 38% of the 20 billion euros in structural funds available to it between 2007 and 2013, shows an analysis conducted by Dragoş Pîslaru, general manager of consultancy GEA
