Page 145 - Proceeding 2015

CONSTANTIN Daniela-Luminita, GOSCHIN Zizi and ILEANU Bogdan FAMP
THE ECONOMIC REGENERATION OF LAGGING REGIONS. AN INQUIRY INTO THE REGIONAL
OPERATIONAL PROGRAMME CONTRIBUTION, WITH AN EMPHASIS ON THE ENTERPRISE CCASP
SUPPORT IN THE NORTH-EAST REGION OF ROMANIA

Besides the above comments, it can be added that in the case of enterprise support significant difficulties
are noticed with regard to co-financing capacity: they come from the need to ensure the own contribution
in relation to the eligible expenses, which, in the SMEs case, can reach 30%. The contribution is much
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 11 TH ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
higher if the ineligible expenses are considered as well.

As regards the administrative capacity, it is considered good and very good in general terms. The efforts
paid in this respect from the very pre-accession period and systematically continued afterwards with the

strong support and monitoring of the European Commission have shown the fruits in stable structures
and responsibilities, clear allocation of tasks, good human resource management systems, effective

support for project applications, well defined process of payment claims, effective first level controlling,
etc.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

Considering the regional development realities in Romania, the allocations under the ROP have offered
30 th – 31 st October 2015 ”Strategic Management for Local Communities” Bucharest and also ranks third among the lagging behind regions of the EU, it received the highest allocation, namely
priority to the lagging regions. As the North-East region is the least developed Romanian NUTS 2 region

16.32% of the ERDF for ROP.

To date (30 April, 2016), the ROP has an absorption rate of 73.20%, compared to the average for all

operational programmes in Romania that is around 75% (Ministry of European Funds, 2016). The North-
East region is above this average, with around 90%. The number of projects in Suceava county represents
around 20 per cent of the total number of projects implemented or ongoing in the North-East region, which

is a share above the average, considering that the North-East region counts six counties.

The institutions involved in the ROP management and implementation display a high degree of staff
stability, resulting in the continuity of the corresponding systems. There has been a series of training

sessions, consolidating the administrative performance in terms of human resources. The weaknesses
indicated by the respondents to interview questions relate mainly to internal procedures, financial
constraints, domestic legislation and politics, etc. The most frequent drawbacks mentioned by the

interviewees in the North-East region refer to bureaucracy, lack of transparency, insufficient
communication between institutions, the long waiting time for evaluation results, political intrusion, difficult

access to co-financing credits especially because of high interest rates, delays in pre-financing payments,
delays in reimbursements, etc. In particular, for Suceava county the need to expand coordination and
cooperation between the public institutions and the private environment, NGOs, civil society has been

emphasized, as well as the need of improve interaction between the county council and local public

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