The government is going to transfer a number of large projects from European funds that remained unfinished from the program period 2014-2020 to new EU funds allocated to Romania in the new program period 2021-2027. Among them are well-known regional hospitals located at the design stage, with Iasi, Cluj and Craiova.

The Ministry of European Investments and Projects (MIPE) submitted for discussion a draft emergency order on establishing a general framework for the closure of operational programs financed in the 2014-2020 programming period.

Due to the upcoming GEO, which has to be approved by the Government, the old method of a phased unfinished project will be applied even now, so that Romania does not pay back to the European Commission the European money that has already been absorbed in their account since 2014. -2020 of the program period, and the beneficiary state institutions must cover the last costs and those related to the completion of the projects from national public funds.

Thus, the governing bodies (mainly MIPE and the Ministry of Public Works) will compile lists of unfinished projects in the period 2014-2020 in 3 categories:

• Non-functional projects. They must become functional, that is, be physically completed or fully implemented by the beneficiaries and contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the respective priorities and the aggregation of targets related to the priorities of the operational program by 31 December 2026. .
• Unfinished projects. These are projects that cannot be completed by the end of 2023, and the costs incurred by the beneficiary for the implementation and implementation of the project/operation after December 31, 2023 will be covered from the beneficiary’s own budget (public institution/state company, etc.). The relevant beneficiaries – public authorities (local or central) will be required to complete the relevant projects by December 31, 2024. Otherwise, the relevant beneficiaries will be required to repay the amounts received from the non-repayable external funds, together with co-financing from the public budget and the payment of any interest and penalties. Thus, if the deadlines are missed, the entire Romanian state will lose money.
• Established projects. This is the Romanian name now used for the so-called phased projects, the term used at the end of the 2007-2013 program period for those large projects that were then left unfinished and transferred to the 2014-2020 program period. And now the state will apply the same a method of phasing projects so as not to lose European money due to non-achievement. Thus, the projects that remained unfinished in the programming period 2014-2020 will be transferred to the financing related to the financial framework 2021-2027.

An example of phased projects is the regional emergency hospitals (SRUs) of Cluj, Iasi and Craiova – perhaps the most famous hospitals that no one has seen.

Since 2015, Romania has had access to European money through the Regional Operational Program to start the design phase of 3 hospitals. Now, in 2023, the Iasi Regional Hospital is nearing the end of the technical project, hoping to be built by the end of 2027 with European money from the Multiannual Financial Program for 2021-2027.

Thus, the new resolution proposed by MIPE provides for the transfer of contracts “for the construction of regional emergency hospitals (SRUs) of Cluj, Iași and Craiova”, financed under Axis 14 of the Regional Operational Program for 2014-2020, to the new Program ” Health” 2021-2027.

“Financial contracts will include general and specific goals, expected results, indicators of results and achievements from the main projects and will fully take into account the technical and economic indicators related to the investment objectives, in accordance with the feasibility studies, which were the basis for the approval of the main projects,” the project provides GEO.

In total, more than 1.5 billion euros are to be invested in the 3 regional hospitals in Iasi, Cluj and Craiova.

3 hospitals are just an example. By the end of September 2023, a complete list of unfinished projects, which are planned to be implemented in stages in the program period of 2021-2027, should appear. These are mainly large infrastructure projects through the Regional Operational Programs (POR) and the Major Infrastructure Operational Program (POIM).

Otherwise, Romania will violate the deadlines for closing the 2014-2020 program period, and “the state budget will suffer due to an increase in unacceptable costs,” warns MIPE.

Also, without these measures, “the continuity of the implementation of projects with European funding is not ensured.” In addition, non-completion of projects “may lead to a serious failure to achieve the goals selected for the performance framework, in which case the European Commission will apply a financial correction,” MIPE also draws attention.

Closing calendar of the 2014-2020 program period:

• 30 September 2023 – Deadline for submission of requests for amendments to European Commission decisions on amendments to operational programmes/major projects proposed to be phased in;
• December 31, 2023 – Deadline for eligibility of funds paid by beneficiaries under projects financed under the operational programs of the multiannual financial framework 2014-2020;
• July 31, 2024 – the deadline for the transmission by each Member State to the European Commission of the final interim payment request related to the operational programs of the multiannual financial framework for 2014-2020;
• February 15, 2025 (extendable to March 1, 2025 EC) – Deadline for submission to the European Commission of the package of documents for closure, consisting of the final interim payment application, the final implementation report, the accounts for the last accounting year, the report on management and the annual final report, respectively, the audit opinion for the last reporting year, accompanied by the final report on the control of the Auditing Body;
• February 15, 2027 – the deadline for submitting reports to the EC on the state of implementation of projects recognized as non-functional.

We will remind you that for the period of 2014-2020, the European Union has allocated more than 49 billion euros to Romania.

Of this money, the allocation for the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) is approx. 35.2 billion euros, respectively, the allocation of the European Fund for Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD) is approx. EUR 441 million, to which the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA II) is added, with funds allocated to the Romania-Serbia cross-border cooperation program in the amount of approx. 75 million euros. The Cohesion Policy allocation financed under FESI is approx. 24.1 billion euros.

The level of development of these European funds is approximately 70%.

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