Over 40,000 projects worth 50 billion euros drawn up by consultants for EU money

After Romania joined the European Union in 2007, the local
market was “flooded” by EU fund consultants, some better prepared
then others, attracted by the hundreds or even thousands of euros
that can be earned from drawing up and implementing projects.
A portion of over 32 billion euros that Romania has available
until 2013, goes into consultants’ pockets for drawing up the
projects, and the amounts rise when the projects are declared
winners and are implemented.
Since 2008, when funding became available, a few thousand
consultancies drew up over 24,000 projects worth an overall 11.3
billion euros for agricultural funds and 17,200 projects worth 40
billion euros for structural funds.
Of these, over 7,400 structural funding applications had been
rejected until the end of May, while around 2,600 projects worth 7
billion euros had been approved. Almost 10,000 projects worth an
overall 1.9 billion euros were approved for agricultural EU
funding.