Romania made important progress in the competition area and therefore the ex-ante conditionalities regarding the state aid were lifted, Romania being the first member state to have these conditionalities lifted, stated European Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Cretu. She met on Friday in Brussels with President of the Competition Council Bogdan Chirtoiu. According to a release sent to Agerpres, the two discussed mainly about the role which the Competition Council can have in using the structural and investment European funds, in the period 2014-2020.
"The existence of an equitable competition on the internal market is an essential pre-condition for economic innovation and development. I'm glad Romania made important progress in this area and precisely for that reason we managed to lift the state aid ex-ante conditionalities, Romania being the first member state to have these conditionalities lifted. Therefore, the Action Plan agreed with the Romanian authorities and the European Commission services can be considered as being fulfilled," Corina Cretu stated.
In her opinion, the Competition Council can play in the future an important role in facilitating the absorption of the European funds in Romania through the management authorities collaboration.
"There are projects that are financed from both the Cohesion Fund and the European Fund for regional development, for which the clarification of the situation regarding the state aid is essential. The faster this happens the more efficiently Romania can benefit from these funds. The Competition Council is part of this process through the fact that it offers assistance to management authorities and to relevant ministries," the European Commissioner for Regional Policy added.
During the meeting, the European official brought to mind the opportunity that Romanian authorities have of using Taiex Regio Peer 2 Peer, a specific instrument, funded by the DG Regio, which facilitates the experience exchange between the management authorities of the European Fund for Regional Development and the Cohesion Fund. It's also an instrument used by the public acquisition authorities to improve the expertise through the good practice exchange.
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