European Funds

CBS Business Consulting is ready to support the prospective beneficiaries of financial assistance available through the European funds and programmes and to assist them with an in-depth understanding of Romanian and European policies, and knowledge of the institutional framework for the implementation of these funds and programmes in Romania and of the programming and other reference documents so as to meet their local or regional needs. We will help you develop and implement quality, relevant and viable projects.

As a member state of the European Union, Romania will benefit in 2007-2013 from financial assistance under the Convergence and European Territorial Cooperation objectives of the economic and social cohesion policy of the European Union and under the Common Agricultural Policy and Common Fisheries Policy. There will be approximately 30 billion Euro allocated to Romania over 2007-2013.

The aim of the EU Cohesion Policy is to reduce structural disparities between regions, to foster balanced development throughout the EU and to promote real, equal opportunities for all.

Funding for regional development will be allocated based on three major objectives:
» Convergence: support for the less developed countries and regions or regions facing structural difficulties;
» Regional competitiveness and employment: supporting regions, other than those covered under objective 1 to achieve the objectives of the Lisbon Strategy (European Strategy for growth and jobs setting goals to be attained by 2010);
» European territorial Cooperation: promoting balanced development throughout the EU territory and to encourage cooperation and exchange of good practices between EU regions.
Romania is eligible under two objectives: Convergence and European Territorial Cooperation.

The European policies are implemented with financial support from various funds and programmes, such as the Structural Instruments – Structural Funds (the European Fund for Regional Development and the European Social Fund) and the Cohesion Fund for the Cohesion Policy. The Common Agricultural Policy is financed through the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, and the Common Fisheries Policy through the European Fisheries Fund.

The Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund are programmed and implemented based on the Community Strategic Guidelines 2007 - 2013 - a European strategic document for the cohesion policy, the National Strategic Reference Framework – a national strategic document and the Operational Programmes - instruments for the implementation of the National Strategic Reference Framework.
In Romania, there are 7 operational programmes under the Convergence Objective and 8 operational programmes under the European Territorial Cooperation Objective.

The 7 operational programmes covered by the Convergence objective are:
• The Operational Programme Competitiveness
• The Operational Programme Transport
• The Operational Programme Environment
• The Operational Programme Development of Human Resources
• The Regional Operational Programme
• The Operational Programme Development Administrative Capacity
• The Operational Programme Technical Assistance

The beneficiaries of the financial assistance available through the EU Cohesion and Structural Funds are central and local authorities, schools, universities, research institutes and training centres, employers’ and employees’ associations, companies, professional bodies and NGOs that implement in Romania projects which contribute to such general objectives as the increase of economic competitiveness, the development of human resources, the balanced development of regions, the transport infrastructure, the environment infrastructure, the development of the administrative capacity and territorial cooperation.

Farmers and producers in the agricultural field, as well as small micro-enterprises in the rural areas and the rural communities can access grants from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.