Burduja, Raiffeisen: Clients seeking EU funding feel completely lost

The authorities have directed too little EU funds towards increasing industrial competitiveness – an area which has a big absorption capacity, and too much towards the rural sector, with the Ministry of Agriculture being very late to react, therefore there is money left unused, according to Marinel Burduja, first vice-president of Raiffeisen Bank. “The banks are a barometer of the business environment, and the responses we are getting from clients show they feel completely lost. They complain about the lack of a coordinating centre at a national level and of a strategy for the absorption of funds, which should be a national priority, as well as the lack of clear criteria for accessing the funds,” Marinel Burduja told ZF. He said entrepreneurs have accumulated big expectations with regard to European funds, but are facing many practical problems, given that, for instance, many ministries have not put together a clear applicant’s guide for eligible projects. “There is a lot of frustration, because there are projects, there are investment emergencies, but there is also a feeling creeping in that there is no one to put the pieces together.”