Brussels, 27/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - This Wednesday, the European Commission reached an agreement with Romania on its National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) and its priorities in terms of cohesion for the period 2007-2013. In its NSRF, Romania describes the investment details for Community funds, totalling 19.21 billion EUR to be allocated to it over seven years to encourage economic growth, job creation, to reinforce human resources in the regions and to level out regional disparities. The adoption procedure has now been concluded, as the Commission has validated the priorities, the annual indicative allocations and the list of operational programmes.
The priorities of the NSRF will be implemented via seven operational programmes. The ERDF will fund three programmes, one of them regional, and other targeting improved economic competitiveness and the third insuring technical assistance. The objective of these programmes is, more specifically, to help SMEs to find funding, to give technical advice to set in place the infrastructure necessary for their growth, to create sustainable growth axes in the cities, to promote energy efficiency and the use of alternative energies. The ESF will finance two programmes, which will be devoted to the development of human resources and to improving the functioning of the basic infrastructure of the country, including the field of environment and transport, and preparing or building 1400 km of roads.
It is worth noting that Romania send its NSRF to the Commission in February 2007. This allowed the Commissioner with responsibility for Regional Policy, Danuta Hübner, to congratulate the Romanian authorities for the promptness with which they established their national strategy.
Infos: http: //http://www.ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/atlas2007/fiche/ro_en.pdf (gb)