Opinion Gheorghe Băcanu: Romania – under the «zodiac of the curse» of European money! The level of absorption of 5% for structural funds – Exercise 2021-2027 and 31.21% for PNRR, 1 year and 10 months before the completion of the plan, shows us that we prefer to borrow expensive money, than to strive to attract cheap money … …

Opinions received at the newsroom. There is in the specialized literature the concept of «curse of resources» or «paradox of abundance» to describe the inability of some countries (eg Nigeria, Venezuela, Angola) highly rich in natural resources, to make this advantage. In the case of Romania, we are currently facing a «curse» of European money. They exist, they are allocated to our country, but we cannot attract them into the economic circuit (the «paradox of the abundance»). I remember from the general school, that at the reading «Dobrogea, Dobrogea!» By Geo Bogza, the «paradox» style figure was presented-despite the fact that Dobrogea is surrounded by water, is a dry region. The «paradox of abundance/abundance» in our case is that although Romania is «surrounded» by European-PNRR money, structural funds-we are a country unable to attract this money, to use for development projects. We must also add here that Romania is a «lucky lucky» country, due to the fact that it has oil and gas deposits, but also insufficiently fructified judiciously. Regarding the absorption of European funds for exercise 2021-2027, the Minister of Investments and European Projects, Marcel Boloş said: “We have a very difficult mission for what the programming period 2021-2027 means. We have 44 billion of which 31 billion are grants. The assessment of grants than we have in the PNRR, and from this point of view, the value of the co -financing is high, 13 billion euros. So far we have an absorption rate of about 5%”. The situation of the absorption of the funds from the PNRR, according to the PNR-health bulletin PNRR no.12/January 2025 (https://motorpnrr.eu/buletin-de-sanatate-pnrr-12-2025/), records very large arrears. The conclusion from this bulletin is that «Romania is about to run out of money (in 2025) from the PNRR for the second consecutive year.» More explicitly it is stated: «Of the 12 billion euros, which, theoretically, we could collect in 2025 from the PNR- the arrears from the payment applications 3 and 4 and the money from the payment applications 5 and 6 scheduled in 2025- there is the risk Very high not to see this year this year. ” On the meter that monitors the absorption of European money, the following data are registered: 1 year and 10 months before the completion of the plan of 29.181,860,000 euros allocated, 9,110,354,405 euros, which means 31.21%. An indication: 6 months ago I wrote an article about the PNRR, and the situation of the absorption of the money was the same, from which it can be concluded that no more cent has absorbed. It is no secret that the renegotiation of the PNR is followed, more precisely the revision of the objectives is aimed in relation to the real implementation possibilities. Regarding the purpose of the renegotiation of the PNRR Minister Marcel Boloş said: «First of all, the main objective is that the money in grants should absorb them 100%. It is about 13 billion euros, 13.7 billion euros, and here it will We have to clean the projects that have a slower implementation rate and somehow put on the commission's table in terms of grant, those projects that have an adequate implemented rhythm ”. The budget on 2025 is calculated with the highest allocation of EU funds, according to Prime Minister Ciolacu's statement, which means that it will rely on the increase. But is it possible that what has not been done so many years in a row to be resolved this year? What is the year 2025 most special?
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