If Romania is not ready for accession by January 1, 2007, the promise of the 9bn euros that should bring it closer to the European Union will not materialise, as the money will be not be possible to use, Matthias Ruete, European Commission's Director of Enlargement said in Bucharest on Wednesday.
If Romania does its homework in the next three years, it could get 5.9bn euros for structural projects in the first three years from accession, as well as another 4bn to invest in agriculture, so that it could be something more than just a "country that has potential", which is never put to use.
The risk of missing this funding, which is absolutely necessary to narrow down the development gap, makes the responsibility of the authorities in terms of reform tenfold higher, beyond all political implications.
The European Commission's Director for Enlargement said the "generous and realistic" financial package proposed for Romania and Bulgaria will be analysed by all member countries, with talks to follow in the next few months. Ruete specified the EU attempted to develop a financial package similar to that the other 10 future member states had been granted.
"We request Romania to pay an EU "admission fee" in its first year after accession, set in line with its GDP, as in the case of all the other member countries and we expect Romania to contribute to EU's budget as soon as possible," Ruete explained. He added Romania had made a good "bargain" because it would get more from EU than it is supposed to contribute.
"The initial estimates show Romania's contribution to the European funds will be of approximately 800 million euros in its first year of accession, 2007," Finance minister Mihai Tanasescu on Wednesday said after a meeting with Ruete.
Beyond the reform effort that needs to be made over the next three years, the allocation of the EU funds puts the financing absorption capacity issue on the government agenda, as the precedents are discouraging in this regard.
"We intend to create internal management and control procedures for the absorption of European funds so that the contracting and endorsement period would be reduced and the beneficiaries of the projects would gain faster access to those funds," Tanasescu says.
The amount promised may look awesome, yet the lack of confidence in the government's capability and will to speed up reform in an electoral year makes business people have their reservations about a hypothetical economic boom while preparing the fundable projects and beyond.
razvan.voican@zf.ro ; oana.nuta@zf.ro
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