Romania has absorbed European funds worth a total of 9.25 billion euros from the 2014-2020 allocation, representing a rate of 30%, said Minister of European Funds, Roxana Mânzatu, on Thursday, in a press conference.

“Romania has a total allocation of 31 billion euro in the cohesion policy area and the agricultural area, and from this amount the European Commission has repaid us 9.25 billion euros, which represents a 30% absorption rate at half 2019,” Mânzatu said, according to Agerpres. In comparison, the EU average absorption rate is 33%.

“We want to exceed the European average and have 100% absorption by 2023. For this year, we plan to spend 2.3 billion euro and monitor the achievement of this target weekly,” Mânzatu said.

At the same time, calls for projects worth 25 billion euro have been opened by this date, she added. “Out of these 25 billion euros put on the table, we have signed financing contracts of 23.6 billion euro, meaning a contracting rate of 79%,” the government official continued.

For the next budget allocation, 2021-2027, the budget proposal for Romania is of 30.6 billion euro, a proposal to be negotiated between the European Commission and the European Parliament.