PM Ponta hails adopting by European Commission of Partnership Agreement

Prime Minister Victor Ponta on Wednesday hailed the announcement made by the European Commission regarding the adoption of the Partnership Agreement, also declaring that this fact enables Romania to launch the procedures for the absorption of the EU funds allotted over the next seven years.

"I took note with satisfaction and confidence of the European Commission's decision, a decision that reconfirms Romania's positive results in recent years as regards the absorption of European funds. This decision also confirms the seriousness of the Romanian Government, which found solutions to recover the time lost by the former ruling. We are the eleventh country out of the 28 member states that signed the Partnership Agreement, which confirms that, for the first time in a long time, Romania is at the forefront of the EU states. After we recorded last year a record growth in the absorption rate at the EU level on the former budget execution of the EU, Romania is ready to start attracting the funds allotted for 2014-2020 as soon as possible," Ponta said, according to a release the Government sent to AGERPRES on Wednesday.

Ponta added that for the 2014-2020 period, Romania benefits from EU funds worth about 43 billion euros, with nearly 22 billion being cohesion funds.

"What does it mean for Romania? It means we shall have more money for infrastructure projects, for projects in healthcare and education, for projects aimed at developing and revamping the local communities, to create jobs and to make up the development discrepancies against the European Union. Moreover, about 21 billion will be used in the coming years for the revival of the Romanian agriculture," the Premier said.

The head of Government thanked the Ministry of...