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Acting Minister of European Investments and Projects Marcel Bolos declared on Thursday that nine billion RON out of the 17.3 billion RON required for the implementation of the "Support for Romania" social and economic package come from European funds.
"There are nine billion RON earmarked in European funding, out of the 17.3 billion RON package. This amount comes in three ways. The first is that related to the price adjustments for ongoing financing contracts for transport infrastructure, water and sewage networks, projects intended for local authorities. (...) Nine billion RON is, for now, the amount we can count on provided that the European Commission's regulations and the provisions of the operational programs are respected. We'll see if there is further flexibility on the part of the European Commission so that we can redirect more money from other operational programs. What is for sure is that we have an absorption rate that is known to everyone and there is indeed this risk of disengagement for the amounts from the old 2014 - 2020 programming period. Therefore we will have to consider a package of measures so as to reduce as much as possible the risk of losing European funds," Bolos told a press conference at the Victoria Palace of Government.
Answering a question on this subject, the Minister said that it's not fair to say that money is being taken from infrastructure projects to allocate it for the 50-euro vouchers, because funding for the latter comes from the 2021 - 2027 programming period.
"The amounts that I mentioned come from different operational programs we are implementing, whereas the vouchers, as stated at the launch of the economic and social package, are financed from the 2021 - 2027 programming period," Marcel Bolos mentioned.
"So this is money coming from the European Social Fund and, just as promised, half of the amount is provided under the Operational Program for disadvantaged persons," he specified.
