After an agreement signed on Wednesday (November 21, 2012) with the Minister of European Affairs, Leonard Orban, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will be offering to Romania technical assistance to increase the absorption rate of EU funds. The EBRD will help out with sector policies and strategies, designing and implementing priority projects from the 2007-13 funding period and, following similar deals with the European Investment Bank and the World Bank, will help strengthen the Romanian government’s capacity to make full and effective use of the Structural Funds in the 2014-20 period.

“Romanian public authorities will benefit from the EBRD’s expertise in making sure the EU structural funds are used in an effective and efficient way so that they deliver growth,” said Peter Stredder, the EBRD’s acting director for Romania on signing the agreement in Bucharest today (November 21 ). He added that the aims will be "to reinforce Romania’s capacity to absorb structural funds, advance key reforms, maximize results and stimulate growth,”

The costs of expertise provided by BERD under this agreement will be reimbursed from the technical assistance allowance included in the structural and cohesion funds, as well as from other programs. Romania does not assume any financial commitments beyond those already agreed through operational programs currently implemented, ie to ensure national contributions of 10-25 percent to the technical assistance implemented through structural and cohesion funds.

Ioana Toader, ioana.toader@romania-insider.com