CEROPE: 15% higher GDP if EU funds are absorbed

The full absorption of European funds would allow Romania to experience a 15% increase in GDP in 2013 than if there was no funding at all. Consecutively, investment would increase by over 28%, according to the Romanian Centre for Economic Policies (CEROPE). “The injection of structural funds will generate a 15% increase in the GDP at the end of the current European budget cycle, in 2013, that is a 2% higher annual increase rate if the funds are used, than if they are not used, in the next seven years,” reads the CEROPE study conducted for the National Forecasting Commission (CNP). At the end of last week, the minister of Agriculture, Decebal Traian Remes, brought to attention the fact that Romania would lose a significant amount of the funds granted by the EU for agricultural projects, due to the low number of applications submitted by farmers, and due to faulty administrative procedures. Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu said that local branches of the Payment and Intervention Agency in Agriculture needed to become operational fast.