The European Investment Bank (EIB) has signed with the Government of Romania a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on technical assistance to support implementation of EU projects co-funded by the Bank in Romania.
Mr Wilhelm Molterer, EIB Vice-President responsible for Romania, who signed the MoU with Mr Leonard Orban, Romanian Minister for European Affairs commented: “The cooperation agreement signed today between the EIB and Romania provides technical assistance for the implementation of EU projects, with EIB co-financing, and is aimed at speeding up the absorption of EU funds. This is complementary to the technical assistance from JASPERS that has been provided by the Bank in Romania since 2006 to help design high-quality projects to be supported by EU Funds, and reflects the EIB’s important role in providing the necessary co-financing to cover the State contribution towards implementing such priority projects. I am convinced that this effort, which has involved close coordination with the European Commission as a joint initiative with the Romanian Government, will play an important role in facilitating the utilisation of EU Funds in the best possible way for the benefit of Romania”.
This agreement will focus on increasing both the speed and quality of absorption of the EU Structural Funds via assistance with project management and implementation. Romania has requested this support from the EIB in view of its long-established expertise with project financing, particularly in the less developed regions that are the recipients of EU Structural Funds, in order to help strengthen Romania’s capacity in terms of project implementation, as well as policy and strategy formulation, and sector and project planning.
In this framework the EIB will provide support for priority projects to be financed in the 2007-2013 programming period and help to develop the capacity to manage the implementation of projects in view of the upcoming 2014-2020 programming period. This will be done in line with its mandate, the relevant EU regulations, and in coordination with its partner, the EU Commission, and JASPERS.
A similar Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between Romania and the World Bank.
The EIB has been operating in Romania since 1990 and works with a wide range of eligible counterparts. It has a portfolio of signed loan operations in excess of EUR 9 bn covering public and private infrastructure investments in the transport, telecommunications, environment and energy sectors and it provides support for local SMEs via loans granted to its financial intermediaries.