engleski

EU FUNDS ABSORPTION PROBLEMS – EXPERIENCE SO FAR

The considerable amounts of EU funds are available for the Member States, particularly for those of Central and Eastern Europe. The analysis showed that EU countries have only poorly and slowly absorbed EU funds. Absorption of EU funds has been disappointingly slow in most countries while the lack of absorption capacity has been a particular problem in New Member States Countries from the last enlargement (Romania and Bulgaria). The purpose of the paper is to draw lessons from the experience under the implementation of Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund to date and review the main developments in absorbing EU funds over the last decade, highlighting the role of absorption capacity. It also points out the relevance of the administrative capability and issues of governance that have been main reasons for the poor EU funds absorption. Particularly, it is shown how the absorption of EU funds has been attributed to other factors one of which has been success of the financial management. The paper seeks to explain reasons for the low absorption rate of EU funds and to identify different types of absorption problems in countries that relatively recently joined the EU. Romania is characterized as a poor performer as it has difficulties at all levels of program implementation. Nevertheless, lessons and experiences drawn from the “new” Member States may provide useful “benchmarks” in the endeavor of assessing the extent and types of absorption problems for Croatia.

Central and Eastern European Countries; pre-accession programs; Structural Funds; absorption capacity of EU funds; new Member States

nije evidentirano