Optimal financing structure

The optimal financing solution to ensure the successful implementation of the project, as well as its operation during the post-implementation period and to respond to all the requirements provided in the Applicant Guides or as established by the Financers.

Flexibility

Concerning your contribution, the structure of guarantees/collateral mix, the grace period, so that the bank financing is correlated to the specifics of the EU-funded projects.

Support in all project stages

Support during all stages of the project, from the identification of the project idea until the end of the monitoring period, done by the authorities.

Diminished risks

Risks associated with the implementation are diminished.

Beneficiaries

Financing solutions  designed both for beneficiaries of projects implemented with European funds, as well as to suppliers of goods/services/works within these projects.

Under a coordinated system and with a constructive approach, EU funds can represent a true Marshall plan for Romania. Romania is now able to recover huge gaps in development.

• A partnership with the bank from the core idea of the project to its completion – the involvement of the bank is essential. Your cooperation which BCR must start as soon as the project idea is born. The bank can be involved in rating/assessing, establishing its bankability and in structuring the project stages, so that the project is financed depending on:
  • the company’s ability to undertake new investments
  • the project’s market  sustainability
  • the company’s experience in the field in which the investment is made
• Cooperating with a representative with extensive experience in the field
• Elaborating a thorough market research
• Conservative hypotheses on the forecasts for business growth
• Drafting a realistic implementation plan for the project, correlated with the actual length of the project implementation stages
• Starting the investment project only after the financing structure (and, in particular, the source of financing) of the project is clarified
• Applying and completing the project in a timely  manner and in compliance with the provisions of the grant contract
• Knowledge of the rules and procedures associated with the implementation and post-implementation monitoring of the project

During 2007-2013, after accession to the European Union, the EU has allocated structural and cohesion funds to Romania amounting to approximately 19.7 billion EUR, of which 19.21 billion EUR were for the “Convergence” Objective and 0.46 billion EUR for the “European territorial cooperation” Objective, in order to diminish economic and social development disparities between Romania and other EU member states, by generating an additional growth of 15-20% in the GDP until 2015.

To this end, four thematic priorities and one territorial priority were identified:

• Developing the basic infrastructure to European standards
• Increasing long term competitiveness of the Romanian economy
• More efficient development and use of the human capital in Romania
• Consolidating an efficient administrative performance
• Promoting a balanced territorial development

The implementation of the strategic actions provided in the National Strategic Reference Framework and the actual accessing of the Structural Instruments is accomplished through 7 Operational Programs.

Concerning agriculture and rural development, for the 2007-2013 timeframe, Romania has received 8.012 billion EUR from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, under the National Rural Development Programme, 0.22 billion EUR from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund under the Operational Programme for Fisheries and approximately 6 billion EUR from the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund.

Romania has started of 2007-2013 with a series of much more restrictive rules for the implementation of the European funds mechanism than those required by the European regulations (relating to procurements in the private sector, the possibility to pledge future goods, the manner in which payments are made to beneficiaries etc.), which was not beneficial towards the absorption of European funds. The measures taken by the Government in the most recent times (starting with 2013), meaning: the implementation of the direct payments mechanism, the simplification of the procurement procedures for the private sector, the harmonization of the procurement documentations for the public sector (particularly for priority projects), the selection of a high number of external specialists for quickly perform the assessment of projects from SMEs, the transfer of the IB SOP IEC assignments to the RDAs etc.

The absorbtion rate of  the  2007 -2013 EU funds allocated for Romania, stands at 70%, as of 31^st December 2015.