Romanian PM vows to simplify EU fund absorption pr

[oneonesks3]

The absorption of European funds in Romania is being hampered by bureaucracy and relevant auction procedures must be simplified, Prime Minister Emil Boc told a regular government meeting on Wednesday.
"There is a host of bureaucratic activities. Each authority must deal exclusively with the obligations incumbent on it, and not do work that overlaps with all the others," the prime minister stressed.
He said that the central authorities will draft [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], in cooperation with European Commission experts [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], standard documents regarding auctions for EU-financed projects.
The standard documents will have a number of elements in common, but will also be differentiated with regard to contracting authority and industry, said the prime minister.
Romania's capacity to absorb EU funds is regarded as one of the weakest in the region [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], said many local and international analysts, noting that the inability of applicants and the bureaucracy to take in EU funding is affecting the country's economic recovery.
Dissatisfied with the way that Romania manages the funds, the European Union has urged Bucharest to show more efficiency.
"We hope that in the first half of 2011 we will be able to prove we can spend this money, otherwise the EU will ask us 'why do you keep asking for more money, when you cannot spend 31 billion euros' made available to us by 2015," Environment Minister Laszlo Borbely said recently.
So far, Romania's absorption rate of EU funds for 2007-2010 is 13.48 percent, according to official statistics.