PM Ciuca asks mayors for will to access the 80 billion euros available to Romania

Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca asked the local authorities to get involved in drawing the European funds Romania has at its disposal these years, 80 billion euros, stressing that it is important that at the local level to determine the "complementarity of efficiency" that each of the European financing instruments can generate, Agerpres reports.

The head of the executive had, on Tuesday, an online intervention at the works of the General Assembly of the Association of Romanian Cities (AOR).

"And because it came to EU funding programmes, it is a personal approach I want to share with you, namely that at the moment we have at least four instruments at our disposal. (...) Each of the four instruments offers opportunities. The important thing is to determine the complementarity of the efficiency that each of them can generate. Why am I talking about this complementarity? Because not a few times we saw that we started certain projects, which should have been placed in another order of priorities, we paved and then we had to redo, because we had not made the sewerage or the water supply system, the lighting was not solved and so on," Ciuca said.

He referred primarily to the completion of the projects that were undertaken under the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020.

"We already find ourselves in that extension period and this programme has benefited from three years of extension. (...) We have another year and nine months and I ask you to think very seriously and to consider which of the projects are being completed and which are not, because there is flexibility on the part of the Commission, so that the money that we anticipate that we will not spend can be used (...) in the measures that we have in the works on the table of the Government, so that we can compensate for the effects generated both by the crisis of the electricity and gas price and by the crisis generated by the war in Ukraine," Nicolae Ciuca said.

He then mentioned the second European financial instrument, provided by the PNRR, asking the local authorities for their involvement in order to get the most out of this programme.

"We need at the level of the local authorities, with the support of the regional development authorities, with the support of the managing authorities, to find the practical solutions in order to be able to achieve everything that can be obtained from this programme. It would be unforgivable to not be able to carry out everything that can represent reform projects, transformation projects, investment projects with European money. I do not think we should repeat the mistakes that have been repeated in the past (...). It is human to be wrong, but here we cannot make mistakes on very large sums of money and opportunities, which really ensure the development and modernization of our country," Ciuca stressed.

The prime minister explained that another third European financing instrument is the one represented by the Multiannual Framework 2021-2027, and here all the steps are initiated to ensure the framework for accessing these funds.

"Please, let us be as organized as possible, so that we can not stay on the last hundred meters (...) to access money from these European funds," pointed out Ciuca.

The prime minister also referred to a fourth instrument of attracting funds, the one generated by the Anghel Saligny National Investment Programme.

"A programme that we will launch very soon. We are going to make the decision at the level of the government, so that we can supplement the amount to be able to cover everything that means the requests coming from the territory and it is directed, as I said, mainly towards this commitment of ours to eliminate the development differences between the counties, to eliminate, to reduce, because we cannot eliminate, but to reduce the differences between rural and urban areas," Ciuca stressed.

The prime minister emphasised the importance of accessing the 80 billion euros that Romania has at its disposal in these years.

"All these opportunities out of the four programmes I have talked about, please, once again, (...) it's an opportunity that I don't know when we meet again and it would have been a shame not to get the most out of all this budgetary effort. And this opportunity, because I didn't specify the amount - it's an opportunity of 80 billion euros - everything we're discussing now is or should be nothing more than an act of will and a firm attitude of the local authorities in order to be able to access the money and get all the projects we've undertaken, but please keep in mind that I have assumed them together with the citizens. Citizens have these expectations from us. We will all be the beneficiaries of everything we have discussed so far," Ciuca said.