Romanian President Slams Govt for Poor Absorption of EU Money

"From January 1, 2007, [...] for infrastructure alone there are 5.5 billion euro [available to Romania] - and we have not absorbed even a cent," Basescu said at a meeting with reporters. "For rural development we have utilised almost zero from the EU allocation."

Basescu further critised the authorities for acting like they are not interested in EU money "because the bloc has rules for its spending."

Romania is due to hold parliamentary elections on November 30 and the Democratic-Liberal Party, supported by Basescu, currently enjoys the largest support among voters.

The former Communist state stands to receive almost 20 billion euro ($26 billion) from EU's structural and cohesion financial instruments and more than 10 other billion euro from various other EU funding programmes between 2007 and 2013.

($ = 0.764 euro)