European Commissioner Cretu offers mediation between Romania, Hungary on cross-border cooperation

European Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Cretu discussed the Interreg V-A Romania-Hungary cross-border cooperation programme on Monday with Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu. She offered her mediation between the governments in Bucharest and Budapest to unblock this programme.

Photo credit: (c) ALEX MICSIK / AGERPRES FLOW

Cretu had received last week Hungarian Minister of European Funds Janos Lazar, who also mentioned the issue. The programme is currently deadlocked because of disagreements between the two EU member states, a release of the commissioner's office informed on Tuesday.

'This programme was created to heal wounds, not make them deeper,' Cretu told Aurescu.

'The Commission appreciates the spectacular results achieved by Romania over the past two years as regards the use of European funds and we wish to see similar efforts towards the unblocking of this project. I have told the same to Minister Lazar,' Cretu declared.

'On my request, Director-General [of the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy] Walter Deffa will demand from the two member states a calendar of activities proposed by each of them to overcome this impasse. I have suggested the two governments to meet on ministers' level to settle this issue, and I have offered to mediate this meeting if necessary,' the commissioner pointed out.

'In the end, those who lose because of this misunderstanding are the citizens on both sides of the border. There are important funds waiting to be accessed to improve these people's lives,' Cretu added.AGERPRES