There is a risk that EU cohesion funds will decrease dramatically in the next multiannual financial cycle and that rural development funds will be merged with competitiveness funds, MEP Victor Negrescu declared on Tuesday, cautioning that it is highly likely that Romania will receive less money than in the current planning period.
The European Commission is currently working on the proposal for the long-term EU budget for the 2028-2034 financial cycle, which will be unveiled next week, agerpres reports.
Victor Negrescu, who serves as Vice-President of the European Parliament, said he was "very concerned" about what the European Commission will propose.
"If the information circulated in the public space is confirmed, this will directly affect Romania as well. Romania will receive less money than in the current multiannual financial cycle," the MEP told a briefing for Romanian journalists.
"There is a risk that cohesion funds will decrease dramatically, there is a risk that rural development funds will be merged with the competitiveness fund, but Romania needs these resources for small communities (...)," Negrescu said.
He specified that the European Parliament's S&D Group has sent the President of the European Commission a letter requesting three measures Ursula von der Leyen should announce at the latest during her State of the Union speech, which will be delivered in September to the EP plenary.
The first is about "protecting the cohesion policy, as it is today, and the European Social Fund, a fund managed by Romanian Commissioner [Roxana Minzatu], which risks disappearing or at least being cut."
The Social Democrats also want to protect the funds allocated for education and "keeping the Erasmus program as it is today", a program also within Roxana Minzatu's area of competence.
"We also asked that the funds for the digital transition and the just transition are kept in place. Romania benefits from important funding for the just transition and we believe that mechanisms must exist to correct inequalities in what these transitions mean, so that no one is left behind. These are the demands that we have mentioned very clearly and on which we are conditioning our vote on the future European budget," Negrescu explained the position of the S&D Group he is a member of.
He also called on the President of Romania, the prime minister and the ministers responsible for negotiating the multiannual budget on Romania's behalf "to develop a coherent strategy in this regard".
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