On Thursday, the government approved the operationalisation of a third of the cohesion policy budget of 16 billion euros, according to of Minister of European Investment and Projects Marcel Bolos.
"Under the cohesion policy, Romania has allocated 43 billion euros (...) A budget that we have to spend until December 31, 2029, and so the measures that the government adopts have to secure funding continuity for infrastructure projects, and make sure there are no interruptions in the implementation of the projects. The government adopted today a raft of measures for the operationalisation of one third of the cohesion policy budget: 16 billion euros are operational today for projects and develop investment projects in the transport infrastructure - 9.2 billion euros; the water-wastewater infrastructure 3 billion euros; specific waste infrastructure 500 million euros; for risk management there is another 500 million euros and an important infrastructure component is the one related to the healthcare infrastructure, which under the cohesion policy has a budget of 2.9 billion," Bolos told a news conference Thursday at the Government House, told Agerpres.
Regarding the transport infrastructure projects, he mentioned that for 600 km of motorway continuity of implementation and funding from European funds will be ensured, giving as examples the Sibiu - Pitesti, Transilvania, Brasov - Bacau, Targu Mures-Targu Neamt motorways and the northern Bucharest ringroad. Among the railway infrastructure projects, he mentioned the railway tracks Craiova - Drobeta Turnu Severin - Caransebes and Brasov - Predeal, totalling 360 kilometres of railway.
The water-wastewater infrastructure component, he added, includes a package of eight projects for the counties of Teleorman, Maramures, Prahova, Harghita, Giurgiu, Hunedoara, Caras-Severin, Neamt.
Bolos said that in terms of risk management, money will be provided for emergency infrastructure, namely the purchase of 1,200 ambulances for the Emergency Management Department (DSU) and for a component that aims to combat the risk of drought, which provides for the purchase of hail rockets and airplanes equipped with special equipment for increasing precipitation and frequency of precipitation.
He also mentioned a part of the healthcare infrastructure that benefits from the operationalisation measures of the budget allocated for 2021-2027, saying that all three regional emergency hospitals- Craiova, Iasi, Cluj-Napoca - still have the necessary framework so that the projects are not interrupted.
The minister said that, once the operational programmes transport, sustainable development and healthcare are approved, refunding procedures with the European Commission can be entered into.
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