Romania expects freeze of EU aid payments

(BUCHAREST) - Romania is expecting the European Commission to freeze funding for human resources development programmes amid concerns of irregularities, the government said Monday.

"It is likely that the European Commission will decide to suspend payments in the coming days", the minister for European Affairs Leonard Orban told AFP after a joint press statement with Prime minister Victor Ponta.

An audit by the European Commission which has not been made public yet is expected to show irregularities in the evaluation and eligibility of the programmes, he added.

If Brussels decides to suspend funding, Romania could lose 100 million euros this year and more than one billion euros next year.

"I hope we will be able to improve the situation before the end of this year", Prime Minister Victor Ponta told reporters.

On February 20, Brussels already 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).

But payments resumed in April pending further checks.

Romania, one of the poorest EU countries, can use 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 barely 6.3 percent of this amount has been used, official figures show.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said the use of European Union funds should be a priority to stimulate growth in Romania.