Minister Bode: Ministry of Transport will have 11.1 billion lei earmarked from budget in 2020

The Ministry of Transport will receive more than 11.1 billion lei from the budget in 2020, with more than 6 billion to be granted under the Title "Non-reimbursable European Funds," the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communications, Lucian Bode, stated on Thursday evening.

"The budget of the Ministry of Transport looked like this: in 2007, the Government approved the Budget Law with 13.4 billion [lei - editor's note] for Transport, spending 8.5 billion from the budget and the Title 58 European Non-reimbursable Funds; in 2018, the Government approved 9.5 billion [lei - editor's note], but it only spent 7.5 billion. Now, in 2019, due to the pressure that we put every day on the Intermediary Body, on the beneficiary, and the pressure that the beneficiaries, in their turn, put on the entrepreneurs, we can speak of 4.1 billion lei used in the transport field coming from European funds. We will close the budget for 2019 somewhere around 11.1 billion [lei - editor's note]. The money for 2020 will exceed 11.1 billion lei. We will have more than 6 billion lei under the Title 58 "European Non-reimbursable Funds" and I hope that we can spend on these projects. We have all the encouragement that we need from the European Commission," Bode told B1 TV private television broadcaster.

According to the data presented by the Minister, Romania has 836 kilometers of motorway in use right now and 134 kilometers of motorway and express roads under construction.

"We have, at this point, 836 kilometers of motorway in use and 134 kilometers of motorway and express roads under construction, and we have approximately 4 billion lei left in money. If we refer to the budget, we had 5.9 billion euros earmarked for infrastructure projects over 2014-2020. From this money, Romania managed to absorb 2.1 billion euros, until now, which means 37 per cent. Next year we will have 1.3 billion euros, which means that we do have money. We kept hearing there is no money, when there is, but we need to spend it wisely," said the Minister of Transport.