Orban announces code of conduct for EU funds handlers

The European affairs minister, Leonard Orban, said that a code of conduct on conflicts of interest for employees working with EU funds will be issued by the end of November

November 2011 - From the Print Edition

“We want to simplify procedures. Often our procedures are more complicated than EU requirements,” said Orban. The minister added that he wants more openness. “We should try to have transparent steps like the segment involved in processing requests for reimbursement,” he said. Orban said the ministry would coordinate the development of a “code of conduct to avoid untenable situations and conflicts of interest for staff involved in the management of post-accession grant community funds.”
He went on: “Also, I set an absorption rate target of 20 percent. If we do not achieve at least 20 percent in 2013 the risk of losing several billion euro will be enormous. We are supposed to spend about EUR 6.7 billion in 2013 alone. Do you realize how difficult it will be? That is why we should reach a minimum of 20 percent at the end of next year, which means about EUR 3.8 billion. It is a very ambitious goal but we believe that we can achieve it. If we don’t achieve it, absorption rates will be below 50 percent of the full allocation period ending in 2013.”
The minister previously said that the rate of contraction of funds was 59 percent. “We aim to reach at least 90 percent by the end of 2012,” he added. Orban said it was possible that in some sectors the rate of contraction could reach as much as 100 percent.