Romania has received EU funds of EUR 39 billion since January 1, 2007, when the country joined the European Union, until now.

During this period, Romania has contributed EUR 13 billion to the EU budget, presidential adviser Leonard Orban said in a conference marking the ten years since Romania joined the EU, reports local Economica.net. The net result of this period thus amounts to EUR 26.5 billion.

However, there could be a discussion on the efficiency of spending these funds, Orban added.

“Even so, there have been taxes paid to the state budget, and the money was spent, in the end, for Romania’s development,” he said.

The European Commission has warned Romania several times for the faulty way of spending the European money. In 2015, it temporarily blocked the country’s access to EU funds on several programmmes.

During the ten years since Romania joined the EU, the country’s GDP rose by almost 60% from EUR 98 billion in 2006 to EUR 158 billion in 2015. The foreign investment balance almost doubled, from EUR 34.5 billion to EUR 64.4 billion. Moreover, Romania’s state institutions have made significant progress and democracy has been consolidated, according to Orban.

editor@romania-insider.com