Close to EUR 265 mln allocated to Romanian SMEs and research by European Commission

The European Commission approved on July 20 the change of Operational Sectorial Program “The economic competitiveness growth” (POS CCE), 2007-2013 through the transfer of approximately EUR 265 million, within the program, for performative projects within the main axis “An innovative and eco-efficient production system” and “Research, technological development and innovation for competitiveness.”

The two main axes, that will receive additional funds, functioned well and overpassed the investments ceiling initially estimated. With the help of this funds transfer, approved by the European Commission, the successful projects will benefit from European financial support, which takes off the burden from the national budget. The European Commission and Romanian authorities will continue to make efforts so that the money for programming period 2007-2013 to be used at maximum in Romania, ” says Corina Cretu, the European commissioner for regional policy.

The European Commission’s decision supplements the allocation of over EUR 155 million both for the main Axis 1 “An innovative and eco-efficient production system”, as well as almost EUR 110 million for Axis 2 “Research, technological development and innovation for competitiveness ”

Almost EUR 265 million reallocated within POS CCE come from domains in which Romania faced implementation challenges.

The operational Sectorial Program “The economic competitiveness growth” 2007-2013 was adopted on July 12 2007. The main objective is to increase the opportunity of Romanian enterprises to reduce the gaps between average productivity at EU level. The European Commission contribution within this program is of approximately EUR 2.5 billion.