200m euros transferred into accounts of EU funds beneficiaries this year

Beneficiaries of EU funds saw around 51 million euros transferred into their accounts in April, one of the best months in terms of payments since the beginning of the year. The rate of absorption for structural funds rose to 8.88%. 49 projects with an overall value of 122.5 million euros got the green light in the last month.
Up until 2013, Romania has available 19.2 billion euros in structural funds, with nearly half the amount, 8.6 billion euros, allocated for the first four years after accession.
Since the beginning of last year, when the first payments were made, beneficiaries have received nearly 800 million euros, which amounts to an 8.8% absorption rate for the money available for 2007 - 2010. If we consider the amounts allocated until 2013, the rate of absorption is 4%.
"From a financial point of view, the first few months of this year, when absorption is traditionally slow, saw around 200 million euros in payments, with the overall level approaching 800 million euros," says {tefan Ciobanu, head of the Authority for Coordination of Structural Instruments (ACIS).