IPRE policy brief on the evolution, funding and operational challenges of the European Village Program

The “European Village” program, launched in 2022 by the Government of the Republic of Moldova, is a project aimed at developing rural communities by improving living conditions and essential public infrastructure. This program addressed critical problems in rural areas such as limited access to drinking water, inefficient public lighting and inadequate social and educational infrastructure.

Elena Bolocan, project coordinator at the Institute for European Policy and Reform (IPRE), has prepared an policy brief examining the implementation of the program, which highlights both the progress made and the challenges encountered in the allocation of funds and the completion of projects.

So far, through the National Fund for Regional and Local Development (FNDRL), 492 projects have been approved in the first edition and 612 in the second, with a total funding of 3.47 billion lei. Additionally, the program has received from external financial support, including 25 million euros allocated by the Romanian Government for the implementation of 58 projects from the 2022 edition.

One of the main obstacles identified is the weak capacity of local authorities to manage projects efficiently, which has led to significant delays. For instance, only 36% of the 2022 projects were completed within the original 12-month deadline and the rest required extensions of up to 6 months. This underlines the need for adjustments to implementation deadlines, taking into account the complexity and resources available at local level.

In addition, there is a clear need to improve financial transparency, in particular in terms of detailing the individual costs of approved projects. The lack of this information limits the assessment of the efficiency in utilizing public funds and undermines public trust in the management of this program.

The ,,European Village” program has the potential to bring change to rural communities, but to make the most of it, several measures need to be put in place to overcome current challenges. Strengthening the selection criteria, improving financial transparency and digitizing the application process could increase the impact and efficiency of the programme, the document’s author suggests.

Following the analysis, IPRE makes the following recommendations:

1. Strengthening selection criteria and prioritising the type of projects funded. In the context in which cities can also benefit from funds through this program, it would be beneficial to provide different criteria for them and to be able to directly benefit the surrounding villages, which could also help to amalgamate them.
2. Strengthening administrative capacities at local level. Considering that 57% of all projects approved in the first edition were incomplete or contained errors in the development of the project documentation, it is important to promote a training program for city hall staff, focused on the use of digital tools and efficient project management.
3. Adaptation of implementation deadlines. Extended deadlines for large infrastructure projects and special conditions for urgent projects to ensure their successful completion.
4. Digitalization of the application and administration process. Gradual implementation of the digitization of the application process by motivating the authorities to use official email addresses and electronic signatures, followed by the development of an advanced system for automating and systematizing applications and evaluations, such as e-Calls PROSPECT applied at the level of the European Union.
5. Increased transparency. Publication of detailed reports including information on the individual costs of each approved project in all editions of the programme.

For more details see the IPRE Policy Brief, available here.

This policy brief is developed within the IPRE project “Thematic Analyses of Public Policies”, carried out with the support of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) in the Republic of Moldova. The opinions reflected in this publication belong to the author and do not reflect the opinion of KAS.