External Funds for the Romanian Railways

In the XXth century, the role of the transports has been considerably increased. Through their agency permanent raw materials and goods exchanges are performed between various areas of the country, between the countries on the same continent or at larger distances. All the communication ways also provide the displacement of people from their home to work place, to the recreation areas or in touring purposes…

There can be said without fearing to be wrong that the state of the transports expresses the economical and social development degree of a country, of a geographical area. The environment where there are located communication ways (specially arranged and built routes, meant for developing a certain type of transport) has also determined the differentiation of the transports in: terrestrial, naval, air and special transport (category including the urban transport, the pipes, the high voltage lines, telecommunications and spatial communications). In the terrestrial transport field are included the railways, the roadways, pipes, urban transports etc., and in the naval transports - on river, on channel, on lakes and maritime naval transports.

Railway Transports - a step forward
In competition with the road, naval and air transports, the railways have maintained their importance, in many countries of the world, due to certain exploitation advantages. Presently, at the passengers' transport there are generally registered decreases and in point of the freight transport, especially when it is about the raw materials (ores, coals etc.), is maintained at high quotations.
In the last decades, the railway network has been extended quite a lot, especially in the countries from the Central Europe and Eastern Europe, in South and South-East Asia (India, China, Vietnam, Malaysia), in South -Western Asia (Turkey, Iran), in Latin America (Mexico, Argentina and Brazil), in Australia and in Africa (Gabon, Nigeria, Angola, RD Congo). There have been built several tracks in areas that are hardly accessible, other have been doubled or have been electrified and the rolling stock has been modernized.
The Romanian Railways has adhered, in time, to the international railway conventions and agreements - European Agreement for the International Main Railways (AGC), ratified through the Law 100/1996; European Agreement for Connecting the Main Combined Transport Lines and other Equipment (AGTC), ratified through the Law 8/1993; the Project regarding the Achievement of the Trans-European Railways (TER), ratified through the Law 124/1994 -, in order to integrate the national railway networks in the European network. In this respect, there is necessary that these should be brought to the parameters of quality stipulated in the European standards.
These parameters could be reached through the rehabilitation and the modernization of the current lines and equipment - through programs that have been already started off in all rail regions -, therefore obtaining reductions of the travel time, travels at European standards and the attraction of the passengers and goods flux to the railway transport.

PHARE and ISPA, for CFR

Since 1989, when in the states from the Central and Eastern Europe the restructuring of the political and economical systems has started, the European Commission has supplied, on behalf of the EU states, support and assistance for the economical restructuring. The basic instrument in this respect has been the PHARE Program, which main objective is to grant technical assistance to the states from the Central and Eastern Europe.
In order to progress this program, the EU member states have decided to support further on the candidate states granting them assistance in order to prepare for adhering process. Part of this preparation will be implemented through ISPA Initiative (Instruments for Structural Pre-Adhering Policies), administrated by the European Commission.

What is PHARE?
Phare Program is focusing on the main priorities regarding the adoption of the community aquis through the agency of the institutional and investment consolidation, other than the ones financed by ISPA Facility and through SAPARD Program. Anyway, Phare Program can support the measure taking in the field of environment protection, of the transport and of the agricultural and rural development only if these are indispensable parts of the regional development or industrial reconstruction programs and if they are not eligible to be financed through ISPA Facility and through SAPARD Program.
After finding out what means PHARE , we should also know the importance of the support that can be offered in this respect.
· Institutional consolidation, namely: technical assistance and institutional brotherhood programs, policies and capacities necessary for adhering, including the ones aiming the social and economical cohesion.
· Investments in order to harmonize with community aquis, centered upon the programs that can be related to the institutional consolidation (mainly), equipment acquisition and the attendance to the community programs.
· Investments in order to increase the economical and social cohesion, excepting the types of investments financed through ISPA Facility and through SAPARD Program. Economical and social cohesion is an objective meant to reduce the development discrepancies and disparities between the regions by promoting the business activities, the improvement of the social issues and of the ones related to the labor force, the development of the physical infrastructure. These aims at reducing the discrepancies between a certain region and the national average and the one of the European Union.
· Investments in the field of Border-Crossing cooperation. Projects proposed to be financed through PHARE Program - the border-crossing cooperation component should fulfill the following specific criteria of eligibility:
- priority fields: infrastructure, environment protection, economical development, free circulation of the persons, goods and services; in the environment field there will be sustained projects regarding the rehabilitation of the polluted areas;
- localization - in one of the border districts (in case of Romania - Timis, Arad, Bihor, Satu Mare, for the border with Hungary; Constanta, Calarasi, Giurgiu, Teleorman, Olt, Dolj and Mehedinti, for the border with Bulgaria);
- to be clearly included among the local border-crossing development priorities;
- to be quality projects, with significant border-crossing impact;
- to comply with the regional development strategies;
- to be in a quite advanced preparation stage in order to allow the financing and the local co-financing, as well as the efficient achievement of the proposed objectives (the feasibility study or at least to have a pre-feasibility study).

What is ISPA?
It is one of the three non-reimbursable financing instruments (next to PHARE and SAPARD) and offers assistance to the candidate countries in their preparation for adhering to the European Union. During 2000-2006, ISPA finances the infrastructure projects in the transports and environment field. The program is unfolded in ten candidate countries from Central and Eastern Europe starting with January 1, 2000.
Pursuant to the approbation of the European Union Council of the ISPA Regulation, the European Commission has proposed an indicative allocation of ISPA Resources for each beneficiary country. Romania will receive between 20 and 26% from the total annual budget available for ISPA Facility during 2000-2006, therefore becoming the second country after Poland with regard to the support granted.
Through these funds, Romanian Railways has succeeded to start off a series of rehabilitation and modernization programs for the lines, bridges, and track equipment and, not at last, of the Railway Stations.

Oana Branzan