Vulnerable people who received support for paying their heating bills will benefit, free of charge, from the thermal rehabilitation of their homes, announced the Minister of European Investments and Projects, Marcel Boloş.
The government adopted, in Wednesday’s meeting, an emergency ordinance introducing new regulations in the field of projects financed from European funds, in order to attract the 5 billion euros that can still be attracted from the 2014-2020 programming period, but also to ensure quick, easy and transparent access to Cohesion Policy funds for the 2021-2027 period, worth 46 billion euros.
“We are continuing our efforts to ensure that Romania benefits from the entire budget for the period 2014-2020 made available through the cohesion policy to complete the infrastructure projects, which are a strategic priority for Romania. In this sense, we adopted today new regulations to respond to the situations identified during the project implementation process, so as to eliminate the risk of their delay and to ensure that the 5 billion euros we still have at our disposal are used to improve the living conditions of Romanians and to support the economy, with an emphasis on smart specialization, research and innovation. Also, for the period 2021 – 2027 we have the perspective of investments of 46 billion euros through the cohesion policy and it is mandatory that the applicable regulations support the priority objectives established in the related programs this period and to ensure easy and transparent access to funds. We also have two changes that will have a strong social impact. On the other hand, for vulnerable people who received support for paying their heating bills, the thermal rehabilitation of their homes will be done free of charge, without being charged for this. Moreover, we will allow religious units access to European funds to enable the rehabilitation of the historical heritage and its valorization from European funds,” said Marcel Boloş, according to a press release from the Ministry of Investments and European Projects, quoted by Agerpres.
The ordinance adopted on Wednesday aims to adjust the prices of investment projects in accordance with the evolution of the price of materials and utilities, in order to eliminate blockages in implementation, by referring to the annual indices published by the INS. Also, to increase the eligible value of a project’s expenses, the beneficiary of non-reimbursable external funds must use at least 50% of the eligible value allocated by the financing contract.
The normative act regulates the issues of public property, especially for administrators who own land owned by the state to allow local public authorities to implement projects with an impact on people’s quality of life, such as regeneration and urban mobility.
According to MIPE, currently, the transfer of real estate from state ownership to the administration of beneficiaries is a cumbersome process, which can last up to 12 months, and the provisions adopted on Wednesday ensure the reduction of the time required for these procedures and the acceleration of project implementation.
“It was necessary to establish the legal framework through which the buildings owned by the state go under the temporary administration of the local authorities beneficiary of projects financed by non-reimbursable external funds, in order to reduce the time required for these procedures and to speed up the process of accessing and implementing the projects”, the press release states .
The normative act provides for the granting of support for research projects and technology transfer, so that research institutes have the necessary conditions for the transfer of research results to the market and for strengthening partnerships with the business environment and the implementation of modern financing tools to ensure the sustainability of projects, especially those carried out by the private sector.
Editor : I.C
