European Commissioner Cretu: For the rest of my term I want to maintain a permanent dialogue with Gov't

European Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Cretu said on Monday that for the rest of her term in office she aims to maintain a permanent dialogue with the Romanian Government, in order to be able to contribute to the improvement of certain things, such as the low quality of infrastructure in our country. 

She is participating in the "EuroImpact - Impact and results of the cohesion policy in Romania. Experiences on accessing funds and implementation of financed programmes," organisd by the European Institute in Romania, in the Capital City Bucharest. 

"What I aim to do for the rest of my tenure - four years have already passed since I was anointed European Commissioner - is to maintain a permanent dialogue with the Romanian Government, with the national authorities, especially considering that on January 1, 2019 Romania will take over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. I will be a supporter of a successful Presidency and I commit, during the time left, to try to improve the things that haven't been improved. For instance, the very bad quality of the infrastructure we are all aware of, for this is something that affects all citizens. This weak quality limits our economic growth potential, especially in areas such as transportation, environment and energy, that's why, every time, I talk to the authorities to speed up the projects in this field," stated Cretu. 

The European official specified that, lately, there were strengthened the efforts of identifying and implementing the necessary measures to increase the EU funds utilization rate and the quality of the financing projects. 

Moreover, she underscored that, in 2007-2013, there were 14,000 small and medium-sized companies in Romania that were supported, thus 51,000 new jobs have been generated. 

"The European Commissioner also spoke about European investments in the waste field. "There were 299 waste storage facilities that were closed. Unfortunately, the single ex-ante condition that is still not met at this point by Romania refers to this waste field (...). Romania was sanctioned by the European Court of Justice and I believe that we must accelerate in meting this ex-ante condition, considering that we pay sanctions every day to the European Court of Justice," said Corina Cretu. 

According to the European Commissioner, the Cohesion Policy also invested in the transportation infrastructure. 

"Despite, of course, all the warning signals that I sent related to the major transport projects, the Cohesion Policy has been investing heavily in transport infrastructure, especially in the county roads. And it also invested in the healthcare and educational infrastructure - 2,4888 schools have now Internet due tot he European funds from the last ten years; there were also 100 polyclinics and hospitals that were modernized (...). Speaking of the medical system, I have approved, not long ago, the modification of the Regional Operational Programme (...) This modification (...), allowed the allocation of 73 million euro to buy ambulances across the country and - I hope - that the medical services will be much better," said Corina Cretu.