Commissioner Cretu: Almost a half of the main 2007-2013 infrastructure projects in Romania won’t be finished in time

Almost a half of the 30 main infrastructure projects from 2007-2013 won’t be finished in time, but European funds worth EUR 2.9 billion from the 2014-2020 programming period can be used to cover the co-financing, said the European commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Cretu, during a meeting at Brussels.

„With the help of experts from the work group for a better implementation, that we initiated at the beginning of my mandate, we succeeded to sequence these projects. Moreover, we approved retrospective projects to raise the absorption of the European funds in Romania. Thus, the European Commission has taken the loans payment that Romania had to pay to the Investments European Bank, exempting the national budget for an amount of over EUR 1 billion,” said Cretu.

Cretu met on Monday the minister of Transport from Romania, Petru Sorin Buse, at Brussels. They discussed about the absorption rate of EU funds in the local transports sector.

During the meeting, the commissioner talked about the concern of the EC regarding the European funds usage in transport infrastructure in Romania. She appreciated the progresses made by Romania in the budgetary period 2007-2013, overpassing 81 percent currently, including the advances made initially.

For a more efficient usage of financial allocations during 2014-2020, Cretu reminded that it’s necessary to adopt the General Transport Master Plan, taking into account that it is the base for the strategy regarding the investments in road, railway, and air transports area from the last years.

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„The minister Petru Sorin Buse assured me that the Master Plan will be adopted until the end of September, ” added Cretu.

Regarding the portfolio projects, Cretu and Buse agreed on the necessity of  accelerating their preparation and on having quality feasibility studies.

Georgiana Bendre