Within the framework of the EEA Agreement, the three EEA/EFTA States allocated a total of Euro 98.5 million to Romania for the period 2007-2009, in order to finance development projects in key sectors for the development of the country, such as: environment, energy efficiency, sustainable production, health and childcare, cultural heritage preservation and human resources development. Norway contributes with Euro 95.5 million of the total fund allocation, namely 97% of the total amount.
The funding assistance is channeled through two different grants schemes:
• The Norwegian Cooperation Programme with Romania (Norway Grants
• The EEA Financial Mechanism (EEA Grants)
The EEA and Norway Grants are Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway's contribution to reducing social and economic disparities in Europe. The values incorporated in the EEA and Norway Grants scheme are: solidarity because it reduces economic disparities in Europe, opportunity since it is supporting the new EU countries in integrating themselves in Europe and finally cooperation which sets aim to strengthen the bilateral political and economic cooperation between Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway and the beneficiary state. Both programmes were launched in Romania in November 2007, with the overall objective to contributing to social and economic cohesion in Romania. At present 69 projects benefit of funding through the two financial mechanisms. You may find the list of selected projects under the EEA Grants here and the list of Norway Grants projects here.
The Norwegian Cooperation Programme with Romania (Norway Grants) is a bilateral co-operation programme. The Programme made available grants amounting to Euro 48 million for Romanian-Norwegian partnership projects in four major sectors: environment, energy efficiency, sustainable production and health. A total number of 29 individual projects were approved by the commitment deadline April 30th 2009. Deadline for implementation of projects is April 30th 2011. The administration of this programme is entrusted to Innovation Norway, a state-owned company under the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry. For more information about this programme and the ongoing projects please look up the programme web site: www.norwaygrants.org The National Focal Point (NFP) for coordination in Romania is the Authority for Coordination of Structural Instruments in the Romanian Ministry of Public Finance.
The EEA Financial Mechanism made available Euro 50.5 million to Romania in project assistance, of which Euro 48.5 million represents Norway’s contribution. 40 projects developed by Romanian institutions, public entities and NGOs are supported through this mechanism in four priority areas: protection of the environment, human resource development, health and childcare and conservation of cultural heritage. The EEA Grants programme is administered by the Romanian National Focal Point (NFP) represented by the Romanian Ministry of Public Finance. In addition, another 115 projects developed by NGOs in different priority areas have received funding under the EEA NGO Fund, operated by the Civil Society Development Foundation. For more information about this programme please look up www.eeagrants.org and www.fdsc.ro.