Romanian Minister for Information Society calls for at least EUR 850mln in EU funds for the IT&C

In line with the Digital Agenda 2020, Razvan Cotovelea, minister for Information Society, said the minimum financial allocation should be at least EUR 850 million for the Romanian IT&C sector, said the official.

“The government must encourage the information society, and attempt to go from mass to item production, and encourage the export of these products. As far as the Digital Agenda 2020, we are currently finalizing this document and on Wednesday, March 26, 2014, during the government meeting, there will be a debate on the next draft agreement with the EU. We support a financial allocation for Romania in the IT&C sector. I have suggested to the minister of European Funds that the maximum threshold is at least EUR 850 million, intervention for the IT&C sector from community funds, with no national co-financing and VAT included,” said Cotovelea.

There are still a number of technical details to settle regarding the Digital Agenda 2020.

“There are many technical details to settle. We also wish to prepare the portfolio for the large projects that will be financed from European funds. This involves sectoral analysis and after, that we can finance them and take them out to auction according to European laws,” said the minister.

“The second important direction is cyber-security. It is a domain that is rarely discussed in Romania but extremely discussed at European level. We are responsible for presenting this legal package. We are in consultations with partners in the European Union and not only. We plan to set up, in the next weeks, a technical group for this, and come up with a plan to show the government,” said the minister.

In March 2010, the European Commission launched the Europe 2020 strategy which will prepare the EU economy for the challenges of the next decade.

The Digital Agenda for Europe is one of the seven pilot initiatives of the Europe 2020 strategy, with a focus on the use of ICT in fulfilling the targets of Europe 2020.