The European Commission has warned the Romanian government that the draft 2014-2020 Partnership Agreement sent to Brussels, which is the instrument that regulates how the money from the EU budget are used,  is not coherent and fails in outlining key priorities, Ziarul Financiar daily announced, quoting a notification submitted to the country’s representatives to the EU.

The document ought to be re-written by September, the Commission reportedly asked. The warning was reportedly passed to government officials. The Romanian representatives claim, however, that submitting the document in September would not result in any delay and assured that the national document will be endorsed by the EC in line with the documents of all the other countries.

In case the Partnership Agreement is rejected by the European Commission, the operational programmes will be endorsed with delay and their implementation would not be possible starting January 2014. This would create further problems related to the absorption of EU funds.

The problems in Romania’s Partnership Agreement were reportedly spotted, according to a document leaked to Mediafax, in early July at an informal meeting held in Brussels by the representatives of national ministries of European funds, regional development, public administration, labour, education and agriculture. The ministries held discussed on the occasion with representatives of respective the European directorates.