EU Commissioner Gradin to visit Romania Seminar on control of European Union funds

ip/97/617

Brussels, 8 July 1997

EU Commissioner Gradin to visit Romania Seminar on control of European Union funds

Mrs Anita Gradin, Commissioner for financial control as well as for justice and home affairs, will take part in the European Commission's seminar in Bucharest, Romania on July 9-11 on the management and control of European Union Funds. Commissioner Gradin will also have talks with the Romanian government, specifically on justice and home affairs issues. She will have briefings by police and customs officials and study border controls. The seminar in Romania is the fifth in a series of seminars to be held in the beneficiary countries of the PHARE programme. Its main objective is to give participants an opportunity to examine, together with representatives from various European institutions, all issues relating to the management and control of the PHARE projects in Romania. More particularly, the aim is to give participants a better grasp of the administrative and procedural changes needed to realise the objectives of the PHARE Programme and to assist the Romanian administration in defining a framework of guidelines and discipline necessary to strengthen the internal and external controls of European Union funds.

During 1990-96, funds for 726 million ECU under the EU's PHARE Programme were allocated to Romania. The aim of the funding is to support both economic restructuring and democratic reform. The PHARE Programme was started in 1989 and has since been extended to 12 Central and Eastern European countries. Romania was included in 1990.

The financial support from the European Union provides a political and administrative stimulus to the associated countries. However, the final success of these programmes and the best use of Community funds depend heavily on the implementation effort made by the beneficiary countries.

The EU seminar in Bucharest is organised by the European Commission's Directorate General for Financial Control in co-operation with the Romanian Government. The seminar will be chaired by the European Commission's Financial Controller, Ms Isabella Ventura, and attended by Mr Alexandru Herlea, the Romanian Minister for European Integration. Among other speakers will be Mr Joan Colom i Naval, Member of the European Parliament's Committee on Budgetary Control, and representatives from the European Court of Auditors and various Romanian authorities.

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