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EU to resume some frozen aid payments to Romania

03 April 2012, 17:21 CET
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(BUCHAREST) - The European Commission will resume funding of human resources development programmes in Romania frozen since February amid concerns over irregularities, the Romanian government said Tuesday.

"This decision is based on progress made in the implementation of human resources development programs", the government said in a statement.

"The decision to resume funding was also taken because of the economic situation in Romania," it added.

However, pending the result of checks, some payments will be smaller than what they would otherwise have been.

On February 20, Brussels halted funding after the Romanian auditing authority found irregularities in the management of the human resources development programme, worth a total of 3.5 billion euros ($4.6 billion).

Romania, one of the poorest EU countries, has access to up to 20 billion euros in European aid between 2007 and 2013 in order to catch up with the more advanced bloc members.

So far, just 6.3 percent of this amount has been used, official figures show.

Unlike a suspension of payments, which can only be lifted after six months, an interruption of funding is a lesser penalty, which can be lifted as soon as improvements are made.


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