Romania will receive a total of 31.5 billion euro from the cohesion policy in the period 2021-2027, as part of its partnership agreement with the Commission to promote the economic, social and territorial cohesion of its regions, as well as its green and digital transition, informs a press release of the Community Executive published on Monday.
Thus, 4.33 billion euro will be granted from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to support Romania’s innovative and intelligent economic transformation. The funds will contribute to increasing the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and will support research and innovation, in particular through collaboration between enterprises and universities. Innovative enterprises and innovative activities within traditional SMEs will also be supported. In addition, the EU will invest in the digitization of businesses and in the development of innovative digital public services, but also in improving the digital skills of the population, especially students and teachers.
Also, investments worth 6.75 billion euro from the ERDF and the Cohesion Fund will be directed towards the green transition, especially in sectors such as green energy, reducing carbon emissions, environmental infrastructure, biodiversity conservation, creating green spaces, risk management and sustainable urban mobility measures. Of these, 2.3 billion euro will be allocated for improving the energy performance of residential and public buildings and for the development of renewable energy sources and intelligent energy systems. Thus, energy consumption and carbon emissions will be reduced and the decarbonization of the energy sector will be supported.
Another 2.34 billion euro will support the water and wastewater sector, as well as improving the circular economy, with an emphasis on waste, reuse and recycling.
An amount of 2.14 billion euros from the Just Transition Fund (FTJ) will be intended to mitigate the social and economic impact of the green transition towards a climate-neutral economy. This fund will be directed to the Romanian regions most affected by the gradual elimination of coal and lignite and will focus on the transformation of energy-intensive industries.
In the field of sustainable transport, 7.2 billion euro will be granted from the Cohesion Fund and the ERDF for the development of multimodal and more sustainable means of transport. Particular attention will be paid to trains and railways, but also to the expansion of sustainable public transport in cities. Investments in the trans-European transport networks (TEN-T) will improve connections with the peripheral regions beyond the Carpathians and facilitate access to industrial centers, thus contributing to economic growth and labor mobility, it is emphasized in the press release, according to Agerpres.
The Commission also adopted the first cross-border cooperation program within the Pre-accession Assistance Instrument – ERDF between a member state and a candidate country, namely “Interreg IPA Program Romania-Serbia”, worth 74 million euro. The program includes three counties in Romania (Mehedinţi, Caraş-Severin and Timiş) and six districts in Serbia. The cooperation program will finance, among other things, investments in energy efficiency measures related to public infrastructure and solutions for energy from renewable sources.