Bucharest - The Executive has decided to unfreeze 8,500 positions of civil servants, to be hired in February in domains connected with the absorption of the European funds.

The Government met yesterday in an extraordinary session to discuss and approve the necessary measures for the increase of the administrative capacity of absorption of the European funds. The Executive considers that after the accession to the EU in 2007 the efficient spending of the European funds will allow Romania to develop rapidly and to fill up the gaps separating it from other member countries.

Romania will receive after accession structural funds worth around EUR 30 bln, according to the decision of the European Council from December 2005. Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu stressed that the 8,500 new civil servants that will handle the community funds can gain 75 per cent more money than the others.

“There are around 11,000 jobs in Romania that were blocked. We decided to unblock 8,500 jobs, that will be distributed to various institutions,” explained Tariceanu. The same said that the 8,500 new civil servants will be hired subject to examination, starting on February 7, in domains such as the European integration or the absorption of the community funds, and that all the employees who will work with European funds will receive a salary 75 per cent bigger than normally. This means that those who deal with the elaboration of projects will get a salary of about ROL 7 M, as Finance Minister Sebastian Vladescu explained.

According to a press release, most of the new employees will go to the Agriculture Ministry - over 6,000 of them.

The Interior Ministry, the Integration Ministry and the Environment Ministry, the Prefectures and also other ministries will receive specialists in the elaboration of projects in order to make possible the absorption of the community funds to a higher degree.

Basically, each ministry will receive, to a larger or smaller extent, specialists in the elaboration of projects. decentralisation Government decided also yesterday to modify the institutional framework for the coordination, the implementation and the management of the structural funds.

PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu said that the modifications were made at the recommendation of the monitoring missions of the European Commission stressing that this is a necessary decision in view of the decentralisation of the management of the cohesion funds.

The management of the cohesion fund, held so far by the Public Finance Ministry, is assumed by the Ministry of Transport, Construction and Tourism, and the Ministry of Environment and Water Management, as managing authorities for the structural operational programmes,” explained Tariceanu.

According to the new regulations, Ministry of Administration and Home Affairs will also manage and implement the financial assistance allotted to the administrative development operational programme.

Another modification targets the designation of the Public Finance Ministry as institution responsible “for the control ex-ante in the domain of public acquisitions for the structural instruments, at central and local level, according to the legal provisions,” Finance Minister Vladescu stated.

He explained that the inspectors from the Court of Audit will make the control ex-post, meaning the control of money utilisation, while the system of remedies - meaning the monitoring of the notices, will be performed by an independent institution.

“The European institutions have requested to split these controls, in order to avoid the interference into the activity of the state organisations,” Sebastian Vladescu explained.

Dispute over cross border funds

Minister of European Integration (MIE) and Foreign Minister (MAE) have different opinions about the rate of absorption of PHARE funds intended for the Romanian-Bulgarian cross border cooperation.

In a press release issued on Friday, European Integration Minister Anca Boagiu stressed, referring to PHARE CBC Romania-Bulgaria programmes, that Romania has recorded high contracting and absorption rates, giving the example of 2003 with 98 per cent. The payments are between 91 and 89 per cent. “The management of PHARE-CBC funds is a proof that Romania can absorb and use to maximum the European money for the benefit of the local communities,” Minister Boagiu declared.

In retort, Foreign Minister Mihai Ungureanu criticised, also on Friday, on the occasion of the conference “Romanian-Bulgarian cross border cooperation - European realities and prospects,” held in Ruse, the rate still insufficient of absorption of PHARE funds. Ungureanu said that the funds for cross border cooperation were insufficiently or erroneously used.

“The Romanian-Bulgarian cross border cooperation does not develop as we like. The European funds are not used up at a sufficient level,” Minister Ungureanu declared.

The same pointed out that “taking into account the funding volume, the absorption rate is below 40 per cent,” he added.