On Friday, February 5th , has been held the public event „Project Management and European Funds Conference” and later an article on same topic has been published by the organiser of this event: The Diplomat Bucharest .
I had a presentation on this topic, and I’ve been interviewed for the article. Here are below my cited parts from the published article:
The same perspective is echoed also by Teodor Darabaneanu, president of PMI Romania Chapter, one of the most important local association for the project management profession, who believes that the political will has changed for the better lately, an attitude that will lead to an improvement in the future absorption ratio. „The absorption of EU funds definitely depends on the political will,” Darabaneanu tells The Diplomat – Bucharest. „The way one organises tenders and the timings of the task book need to be done efficiently, because those were the main obstacles so far [in attracting EU funds]. However, I think that the political will has changed for the better and that the situation will see an improvement in this regard, especially if authorities will work closely with experts.”
Darabaneanu goes on to add that one of PMI’s objectives this year is to cooperate with other important project management associations in order to further help the Ministry of European Funds with expertise on the management of the projects financed with EU money not only in the pre-accessing process, but also during the execution of the project. „Authorities need to assess all their past mistakes and try to avoid them in the second financial period with the help of experts,” he says. „We, as PMI, together with other associations specialized in project management, could help them. I am optimistic regarding the 2014-2020 period due to the new technocrat Government, because I have noticed that the people want to professionalise. If things are going on the right path and people will get more confident, certainly the rates of submission of projects and absorption will increase, followed by a better execution of projects.”
You can read the entire article: Project management: Romania’s key to the EU funds door
Teodor Darabaneanu 