Radio România Internațional

Tag: EU Commissioner for Regional Policy

  • January 29, 2018

    January 29, 2018

    GOVERNMENT — The ministers nominated to be part of the new PSD-ALDE cabinet led by Viorica Dancila are today being heard by the relevant committees of the Romanian Parliament. Also today the Parliament of Romania, meeting in a plenary session, is due to vote on the validation of the new cabinet. Improving the healthcare system, amending the Education Law, modernising legislation in the judicial system, going ahead with the process of decentralisation, increasing the pension point and reducing the VAT are some of the measures included in the governing program. Furthermore, as regards this year, the PSD-ALDE ruling coalition wants to simplify the taxation system and eliminate some taxes, among which the solidarity tax and the tax on food additives. The opposition parties, the National Liberal Party, Save Romania Union and the People’s Movement Party have made public their decision to vote against the new cabinet, whom they do not expect to have a spectacular performance. The Liberals are also discontent about the hearings timetable, saying the timeslot allotted to each person nominated at the helm of a ministry is too short to have solid talks. The seat allocation formula shows PSD and ALDE are holding a fragile majority, and if several MPs in power are absent from the vote or vote against the cabinet, the government led by Viorica Dăncilă might not be validated. The new cabinet is made up of 28 members, having four deputy prime ministers, as compared to three in the previous cabinet.



    TALKS — Romania’s President, Klaus Iohannis, will meet in Brussels on Wednesday with the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, and with the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk. The focal points on the agenda of talks include the judicial overhaul, the fight against corruption and Romania’s holding the rotating presidency of the EU Council in the first half of 2019. The Commission has recently voiced its concern about the latest developments in Romania and called on the Romanian Parliament to reconsider the changes brought to the justice laws. The independence of the judiciary and its capacity to efficiently fight corruption are the fundaments of having a strong Romania within the EU, the President and the First Vice-President of the Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker and Frans Timmermans, respectively, have stated in a joint declaration. At the end of 2017, the parliamentary majority made up of the Social Democratic Party-the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Romania adopted changes to the justice laws, raising concern among European bodies and states, generating wide-scale protests in the country and stirring harsh criticism from the magistrates and the right wing opposition.



    EU FUNDS — Romania received European funds worth 45.7 billion Euros from the EU budget, accounting, on an average, for 2.8% of the GDP, in the 2007-2017 period, the governor of the National Bank of Romania, Mugur Isărescu, has today said in a conference also attended by the EU Commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Creţu. The central bank governor has also said that after taking into consideration Romania’s contribution to the EU budget, net inflows of European funds stood at 30.4 billion Euro, that is 1.8% of the GDP per year on an average. Corina Creţu has today started a two-day official visit to Romania. The agenda of the visit also includes a meeting with the prime minister designated by the PSD-ALDE ruling coalition, Viorica Dăncilă, for talks on European funds. The European official has said she comes to Bucharest to lay the foundations for a tight and fruitful cooperation with the new Government, with regard to the optimal use of resources available under the multi-annual 2014-2020 financial framework and to hold talks on the new post-2020 financial framework.



    TENNIS — Romanian women tennis players Sorana Cîrstea (no.36 WTA) and Irina Begu (no.37 WTA) are taking part in the Saint Petersburg tennis tournament, this week, with 750,000 dollars in prize money up for grabs. On Tuesday, Cîrstea will meet Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova (no.26 WTA), whereas Begu will face a player coming from the playoffs. The first seed of the tournament is Danish Caroline Wozniacki, who this week has become no.1 WTA, instead of Romanian Simona Halep. The two tennis players met on Saturday in the finals of the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tournament of the year. Halep gave up playing in the tournament in Russia.

  • European funds and eligible projects

    European funds and eligible projects

    The European Commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Cretu, is currently on a visit to Romania for talks with the national and regional authorities on the priorities of the European Commission and the absorption of European funds. In Bucharest and the north-eastern city of Iasi, Corina Cretu has scheduled meetings with members of the Romanian Parliamentary Committees on European Affairs, the health minister, Romanian MEPs and mayors. She will also attend, alongside Deputy Prime Minister Vasile Dancu, the conference My City in our Europe, Current Challenges for Sustainable Urban Development and the Role of EU Funds.



    In an interview on Radio Romania, Commissioner Cretu also said Romanias absorption rate of community funds in the 2007-2013 financing period stood at 88.7%. In exchange, according to Corina Cretu, so far, Romania has not accessed any money of the 22 billion Euro available to it in the 2014-2020 financing period, because the institutions with responsibilities in absorbing community funds have not been finalized and the role played by the National Agency for Public Procurement has not been clarified yet.



    Corina Cretu: “22 billion Euros are earmarked for Romania in the 2014- 2020 budgetary exercise, but we are still at an incipient stage, when certification institutions, the control and management mechanisms of European funds are still being put in place, and it is only afterwards that we can hope to receive bills and invoices at a fast pace. I know that there are beneficiaries who started works on their own and are waiting for these institutions to be finalised in order to be able to officially send to the European Commission bills and invoices of the works that have already been undertaken.



    In Iasi, Commissioner Corina Creţu, accompanied by health minister, Vlad Voiculescu, has talked, among others, about the preparations that are being made to build three regional hospitals with European money. Special attention is paid to Romanias northeastern region, the most poverty-stricken area in the European Union.



    Corina Cretu: “In the 2014-2020 financing period, this region will have a 1.18 billion Euro budget, under the Regional Operational Program, accounting for some 20% of the amount allotted to Romania by the Regional Fund. We hope the newly elected local authorities will learn the lessons of the past and we will be able to start all major programs and design important projects for the ensuing period of time.



    Following Romanias joining the EU in 2007, the accession of European funds has turned out to be more complicated than someone could have ever imagined. A lack of interest, red tape and embezzlement of EU funds have all been recurrent obstacles hindering the development of local and regional projects. And, a higher rate of EU funds absorption will only be beneficial to the Romanians. (Translated by D. Vijeu)