Photo: Lucian Muntean
21/07/2025
Out of hundreds of EU-funded biodiversity projects, authorities have managed to complete only 22 in six years
Laura Popa
Reporter
- One of the "national emergencies" identified by Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan, in addition to reducing the budget deficit, was attracting European funds
- But how is Romania managing to implement EU-funded projects? With derogations
- PressOne asked the Ministry of European Investments and Projects how many of the biodiversity conservation projects funded in the 2014-2020 period have actually been completed
- The ministry's answer: out of 131 such projects, only 22 have been completed. That is barely 16.8% of the total
- What happened to the rest? They either remained unfinalized or were phased out
- One example is the project to improve the Air Quality Assessment and Monitoring System, run by the environment ministry. According to data obtained by PressOne, the value of the project amounted to over 80 million lei and was supposed to be finished by December 2023
- With a progress of only 0.96%, the project was moved to 2021-2027, on which occasion it received another 63 million lei in funding.
- For uncompleted projects, the ministry is extending the deadline by which they can be completed through emergency ordinances. Otherwise, the funding received will have to be repaid.
National Agency for Protected Natural Areas, no completed projects
After showing how the best EU-funded projects for biodiversity conservation and restoration of degraded ecosystems have been used for management plans of protected areas part of the European Natura2000 network, PressOne asked the Ministry of European Investments and Projects for data on the status of these projects.
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Thus, according to the answer provided to the editorial office, for the 2014-2020 funding period, 131 projects have been submitted under the Large Infrastructure Operational Programme, for priority axis 4, environmental protection through biodiversity conservation measures, air quality monitoring and decontamination of historically polluted sites, with specific objectives, 131 projects have been submitted.
Of these, only 22 were completed. This means the project has been fully implemented and payments made. Out of the total number of projects that received funding for Axis 4 of the Large Infrastructure Operational Programme, this is only 16.8%.
A much higher percentage is recorded for uncompleted projects at 50.4%, more than half (66 projects remained uncompleted as of December 2023, when the closure of the operational programs funded in 2014-2020 took place).
The National Agency for Protected Natural Areas ranks first in terms of projects for which a funding contract has been signed but the project has not been finalized, with zero biodiversity conservation projects completed.
According to PressOne's response, the institution has submitted 27 projects under priority axis 4, with most of the funding contracts signed in 2021 and aimed at developing management plans for certain protected areas.
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Romania had over 490 million euros available for biodiversity conservation, with most of the funds allocated for the development of management plans for natural areas within the Natura 2000 network. However, there are still sites without a management plan, or with plans that include measures that are too general."
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As of December 2023, two years after the signing of most funding contracts, the implementation status of most projects was 0.00%, according to the response provided to the newsroom.
As a result, of the 27 projects submitted by the Agency, 22 have been phased for the 2021-2027 programming period, to be funded under the Sustainable Development Program.
This means that from the new program, part of the funds will be used to close projects that had already received funding but, for various reasons, did not reach the end.
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Another five projects submitted by ANANP for funding under the same axis remained unfinalized. In their case, the agency has only until December 2026 to complete them, but the necessary work will be carried out with money from the institution's own budget. Otherwise, the funds received will have to be repaid.
Of the total number of projects funded under priority axis 4 of the Large Infrastructure Operational Program and phased in the Sustainable Development Program, more than half are projects of the National Agency for Protected Natural Areas (ANANP), results from the analysis of data received from the ministry.
Of the 43 phased projects, 22 belong to ANANP.
The list of underperforming institutions is rounded out by the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve Administration and ROMSILVA
The same answer provided by the Ministry of European Investments and Projects to the editorial staff shows that the National Forestry Agency ROMSILVA, as a protected area administrator, has submitted 17 projects for funding under priority axis 4 of the Operational Program Large Infrastructure 2014-2020.
Out of the 17, ROMSILVA managed to conclude only one project, totaling over 19 million lei.
What happened to the rest of the projects? Ten have remained unfinalized, with a total value of more than 98 million lei, and six have been phased for the period 2021-2027.
For its part, the Administration of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve (ARBDD) managed, out of the 10 projects submitted, to complete only one, to leave two unfinalized and to phase the remaining 7 projects for the next financial year.
The total value of the projects finalized by the ARBDD amounts to over 223 million lei.
No projects contracted after 2021 have been completed
According to the same answer provided to PressOne, 24 new funding contracts were signed in 2021 with beneficiaries who applied for funding under Axis 4 of the 2014-2020 Large Infrastructure Operational Programme.
As of December 2023, when all contracted projects should have been completed, the ministry's statistics show that not a single project for which a financing contract was signed in 2021 had been finalized. Of the 24, 3 remained uncompleted and another 21, because they met the eligibility criteria, were phased into the 2021-2027 Sustainable Development Program.
The value of the unfinalized projects amounts to 22 million lei, while the phased projects total over 600 million lei. Some of these funds have been used because some phased projects had a high implementation rate. Others, however, according to MIPE, had, at the time of phasing, 0% physical progress, which means that, to a very large extent, the money was not used.
The situation is similar for 2022, with 14 new contracts signed, of which seven remain unfinalised and another seven have been phased for the new program.
Although the operational programs financed during the 2014-2020 period were supposed to close in December 2023, contracts were signed as late as July 2023. That means only 6 months for full project implementation.
An example is the project "Implementation of active conservation measures on the territory of the ROSCI0240 Tășad Site of Community Importance", for which the National Agency for Protected Natural Areas signed a financing contract worth more than 11 million lei with the management authority in July 2023.
With 0% physical progress made by the close of the funding period, the project remained unfinalized.
Another example is a project from January 2023, for which the Administration of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve received funding of over 47 million lei.
With 0.28% physical progress as of December 2023, the project has been phased for the Sustainable Development Program and has received new funding of over 45 million lei. This means that only around 2 million lei was used from the first funding, and another 45 million lei was needed from the new year to complete the project.
The return of funds, postponed by emergency ordinances
In May 2023, the government led by Nicolae Ciucă issued OUG 36, which established the general framework for the closure of operational programs financed in the 2014-2020 programming period.
In the context that the implementation period of the projects from the POIM 2014-2020 was until December 2023, the managing authority had to, based on OUG 36, gather lists of the projects that remained unfinalized, non-functional or that meet the criteria for phasing out.
According to Government Emergency Ordinance 36, unfinalised projects are those that could not be fully implemented by December 2023, but for which the beneficiary has one more year, until December 2024, to close them. The completion of the projects no longer benefits from EU funds, but must be carried out from own budgets.
If these projects had not been completed by December 2024, the beneficiary, in most cases a state institution, would have to repay the amounts received from non-reimbursable external funds, together with the co-financing from the state budget and any interest and penalty payments.
In July 2024, the Ciolacu government comes up with a new emergency ordinance that moves the deadline by which unfinished projects can be completed to December 2025.
According to statistics from the Ministry of European Investments and Projects sent to PressOne, the 66 unfinalised projects from the POIM 2014-2020, priority axis 4, with specific objectives, have a total value of over 620 million lei.
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