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Digitization is the priority goal in the programming of the future European money, and for Romania the period 2021 - 2027 will be the time when it will have to focus on competitiveness, Minister of European Funds Roxana Minzatu told the meeting of the Monitoring Committee for the Competitiveness Operational Program (COP).
"For Romania, 2021 - 2027 will be the period when we will have to lay emphasis on competitiveness. The timely preparation of quality projects from this perspective will be a key factor in the healthy and long-term development of the Romanian economy. Let us not forget the progress we made, we are seeing extensive growth. In order to strengthen this growth, we need competitive companies and products and we need to capitalize on our digitization potential on all social and economic segments. (...) The design of the future operational programs, the funding process will undoubtedly take into account Romania's needs. The watchword will be getting prepared for intelligently spending European money in the next programming period. The long-term thinking we adhere to before this new challenge - the third financial framework for Romania - shows the maturity of us all and ensures the so much needed premise for a better start," Roxana Minzatu said.
The Ministry of European Funds said in a release this Thursday that 41 calls for proposals worth 1.44 billion euro (91.23 pct of the allocation) have been launched through the Competitiveness Operational Program; 382 financing contracts have been signed with the beneficiaries of competitiveness projects, 78 projects have been completed and 275 projects are under implementation.
The signed contracts are worth a total of one billion euro, which represents 63.57 pct of the allocation. Payments to the beneficiaries amount to 389.89 million euro, ie 26.28 pct of the allocation under the program.
This year's priorities were also presented at the meeting, specifically launching all the calls for projects, reallocating the performance reserve and starting the preparation of the projects for the future programming period.
The major ways for a more efficient implementation process were also discussed, along with streamlining payments to beneficiaries, the release also informed.
Participating in the meeting of the COP Monitoring Committee were DG Regio Head of Unit Carsten Rasmussen - on behalf of the European Commission, as well as Ana-Maria Dobre and Damien Cocard, program managers - EU programs & policies.
