Romania considers that the European Cohesion Policy must remain the main mechanism to overcome development gaps between the EU countries.

This is what Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă told European officials gathered in Bucharest for a conference dedicated to the future of this project that was launched 30 years ago. Romania is to benefit from an additional € 7 billion between 2021 and 2027.

Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă recalled that Cohesion Policies, which have the role of reducing development disparities between Europe's regions, must remain the main investment policies in the EU to take into account the social and demographic realities of each EU country.

Viorica Dăncilă advocated clearer eligibility principles, which would help to properly judge the projects that are being submitted for European funding.

Viorica Dăncilă: We believe that a more concrete definition of the relevant criteria is needed so as to create the premises for a general Commission assessment and to ensure equal treatment for all Member States.

According to European Commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Crețu, Romania will benefit from an increase of 7 billion euro in Cohesion Policy in the future EU budget for 2021-2027.

Corina Creţu: This means over 300 euro per capita in Romania. This is the logic of Cohesion Policy: the richer you get, the less you get. So the Netherlands will receive 13 euro per capita, and countries like Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece will get more.

On the use of European funds, Minister in charge Rovana Plumb said that the Romanian Executive will use European money to pay the feasibility studies for the three regional hospitals in Iași, Cluj-Napoca and Craiova.

Minister Rovana Plumb has not excluded that the three hospitals will also be built through public-private partnership.

Source:RRA.Translated by Miruna Matei