Romania's EU funds absorption rate is worrying and places the country second to last among Central and Eastern European countries, according to a study by audit and advisory firm KPMG. The figures for contracted grants put Romania among the below average performers, together with Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland, Hungary, while neighboring Bulgaria is placed among the above average performers.

With an available budget of EUR 23.2 billion between 2007 and 2013, and contracted grants of EUR 14.6 billion, Romania paid only EUR 3.1 billion grants from EU funding, according to the KPMG report. Basically Romania contracted 60 percent of the amount available and paid only 15 percent of it to the beneficiaries, placing Romania somewhere between the second to last and the last position.

“Half of the CEE countries (Czech Republic, Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland) paid between 28 and 39 percent of their available budget. While the Romanian and Bulgarian ratios have increased slightly since the last year, both show values under 20 percent,” according to the report. Despite performing well for contracted grants, Bulgaria was down with Romania for paid amounts.

Romania's available funding is mostly directed to transport – EUR 6.4 billion, followed by environmental issues – EUR 5.4 billion and for human resources development, some EUR 4.6 billion. A budget of EUR 2.8 billion was allotted to economic development. However, the biggest volume of contracted grants is for the environment, some EUR 4.4 billion, while on the human resources side – some EUR 3.7 billion. For transport, Romania contracted some EUR 3.2 billion, while for economic development, some EUR 1.5 billion of grants were contracted.

The full KPMG report is online here.

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo source: sxc.hu)