European Funds Minister Manzatu: Romania drew 9.5 billion euro of European funds; absorption rate-30pct

Romania absorbed European funds worth 9.25 billion euro, from the 2014-2020 allocation, representing a 30 percent rate, European Funds Minister Roxana Manzatu told a news conference on Thursday. "Romania has a total allocation of 31 billion euro in the cohesion policy area and the agricultural area and, from this amount, the European Commission has reimbursed us 9.25 billion euro, which represents an absorption rate of 30 percent in the middle of 2019," Manzatu said. For comparison, the EU average absorption rate is 33 percent. "I want to surpass the European average and have 100 percent absorption by 2023. For this year, we plan to spend 2.3 billion euro and monitor weekly the achievement of this target," Manzatu showed. Furthermore, calls for projects have been launched up to now, that are worth 25 billion euro, she added. "Out of these 25 billion euro on the table, we have signed financing contracts worth 23.6 billion euro, meaning a 79 percent contracting rate," the Government official continued. For the next budget allocation, namely 2021-2027, the budget proposal for Romania stands at 30.6 billion euro, a proposal that will be negotiated between the European Commission and the European Parliament. The largest allocation of 17.3 billion euro is through the European Regional Development Fund, with an allocation of 8.5 billion euro through the European Social Fund via the Cohesion Fund - 4.5 billion euro, and for territorial cooperation - 300,000 euro. AGERPRES (RO - author: Florentina Cernat, editor: Andreea Marinescu; EN - author: Rodica State, editor: Adina Panaitescu)