MEP Negrescu: We must collaborate more with states that are best at attracting European funds

PSD (Social Democratic Party) MEP Victor Negrescu on Wednesday said that our country must be more active in collaborating with those countries that are best at attracting European funds, such as Finland and Poland.

"In order to attract European money, a broad consensus is needed, and for that we need simplification, standardization, professionalism, in terms of how we work and attract these European resources. We need to be more active in working with the countries that are best at attracting European money, and I would like to mention here Finland and Poland. (...) The success of these states is based on objectives that are mentioned in our programme too, and I mean here transparency, the need to involve all partners, all actors, all those who are relevant in this field, the need to list these projects, to present them in a concrete way, to provide potential beneficiaries with lists of projects already drafted, where the beneficiary comes with his own ideas. (...) In order to do these things we need to invest in people, locally and at the national level, in those who work on projects and in those who work every day so that these European resources reach the beneficiaries," said Negrescu at an online debate dedicated to the social-democratic perspective on the future of Europe, in which he presented the political programme of PSD in the field of European funds.

He added that the European Union offers Romania many opportunities in terms of attracting European money, and in the period 2021-2027 our country can use over 85 billion euros.

"We have a lot of studies started, there are a lot of ideas started, but we don't have coherence, we don't have a systemic programming of what we intend to do with these European resources so that they reach the real beneficiaries. PSD, in its governing programme, it emphasizes this dimension so that European money will reach the beneficiaries and generate positive consequences in terms of improving the living standards of the population, and in this sense the cohesion policy is a central element for which we, the Social-Democrats, we fought at the European level," Negrescu said.