European Funds for Romanians

The European Commission has decided to unblock the Sectoral Operational Programme for Human Resources Development and resume payment to Romania.

The measure was taken following an auditing mission by a team of European experts between the 29th of January and the 1st of February.

Brussels said it would resume payment to Romania in the coming days for applications of reimbursement submitted in December 2012, amounting to 148 million euros, while temporary financial corrections of 25% were also applied, as agreed with the Romanian side.

Payments under the Sectoral Operational Programme for Human Resources Development were suspended last summer for irregularities in the awarding and implementation of a number of projects in the 2009 to 2011 period.

The government in Bucharest has announced that the European Commission auditors will make two more trips to Bucharest to assess the implementation of the programme with a view to lifting the financial corrections applied to the reimbursement funds required by Romania from the European Commission.

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