In the two years since the integration in the European Union, Romania has absorbed almost 18% of the money that were supposed to get into our country from the European Commission, sources from the Ministry of Environment inform. The excessive bureaucracy, the lack of trained personnel, the lack of projects and the corruption are the reasons for the reduced rate of absorption.

Romania needs urgent environmental investment, but the corrupt system prevents the absorption from EU money.

Approximately 5.6 billion euros, 4.5 billion euros of which would have come from the European Union, is the sum for the Romanian environmental investments for the period between 2007 and 2013 (water, waste, biodiversity, forestation, protected areas and species). The money (about 4.5 billion) comes from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and from the Cohesion Fund (CF), and this is added up to the national co-financing of approximately 1.1 billion euros.

The best situation is met in the waters sector, which will receive most of the European funds allocated through the Environment Operational Program (60%). According to the officials of the Ministry of Environment, this is the area that requires major investments "in order to comply with the European standards". In 2007 and 2008, Romania received approval from the European Commission for eight major projects, which reached 850 million euros. Our country has received another 5.2 millions for 30 investment projects considered a little smaller. For 2009, the Ministry of Environment is bragging about 80 projects approved having a total value of more than 5 billion.

THE WATER WINS, THE BIODIVERSITY HAS TO WAIT

The Operational Program for the environment targets the water and used water sectors (33 projects reaching 3.5 billion euros) as well as the waste management (30 projects