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The Government is considering a rethink of the institutional architecture in matters of European funds absorption, following, among other things, the decentralization of the absorption of European funds by Regional Development Agencies under which Managing Authorities will function, in order to simplify the absorption procedure, Prime Minister Ludovic Orban said on Wednesday, at Victoria Palace, at the beginning of the meeting with representatives of the business environment and of the associative structures.
He mentioned that, compared to the 2014-2020 multiannual exercise, there are new elements regarding the European funds.
"There is a strategic orientation of the European Commission for the number 1 objective and there is a thematic concentration (...) of 35 percent, namely that, in effect, they want to allocate from the ERDF [European Regional Development Fund - ed.n.] 35 percent for the number 1 objective, which means smart specialization, innovation, research, smart solutions, smart city, digitalization. Basically, there will be an area where we will have significant financial resources for which we will have to prepare all the possible beneficiaries, even to generate a system of drawing up projects, so that we have the ability to use this money," stated Orban.
The prime minister added that the new European Commission's political line manifested through the Green Deal will create challenges to which Romania will have to adapt. He pointed out that the objectives to be found in the Green Deal, which aims to reduce carbon emissions by 55 percent by 2030 and ensure neutrality by 2050, will create effects on all areas of the economy where there are industries that generate carbon emissions.
"Here we will have to obtain resources to reach our objectives, because, at least in the energy field, there is a risk of losing up to 40 percent of the production capacity, if they consider fossil fuels as unusable. However, coal is condemned, as an energy resource, and here the reasoning we need to have in the not-so-long term, approximately the 2030 horizon, is to find solutions to produce energy that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions," Orban went on to say.
He added that the objective is for the cohesion funds not to be affected and the financing for agriculture to be maintained.
AGERPRES
