The results were announced on May 19 by Infrastructure and Regional Development Minister Volodymyr Bolya. The applications cover 41.06 km of district roads, 516.42 km of public roads and streets within the administrative boundaries of settlements, as well as 109.71 km of pedestrian paths and platforms for access to public facilities.
The total value of the presented projects amounts to 2.6 billion lei, and more than 1.48 million citizens will benefit directly from these investments.
The most applications were received from the “Center” region – 239. The local authorities from the North region submitted 178 requests, while those from the South region – 128. Another 16 projects were submitted by Chisinau municipality and 18 by ATU Gagauzia.
After the collection of applications, the administrative evaluation stage will be followed by the National Directorate for Regional and Local Development (ONDRL). The projects will be evaluated from a technical and financial point of view according to several criteria, including the feasibility and importance of the project, its compliance with national, sectoral, regional and local development strategies, impact on beneficiaries, etc.
During the technical and financial appraisal period, in addition to ONDRL specialists, subject matter experts from the State Road Administration will also visit the field. The completion of these two phases is expected by the end of June this year.
A prerequisite for the implementation of local road construction and modernization projects within the framework of the Europe Next Door Programme is that local authorities have a Master Urban Development Plan, including directions, priorities and rules for the development of the settlement.
In this regard, projects for the development of Master Urban Plans are financed under the Europe Next Door Program. Namely: 36 projects are implemented through the Program “European Village-1”, 127 – through the Program “European Village-2”. Another 76 projects are under consideration by MIDR for funding approval, and the total number of applications submitted for funding is 185.
The Europe Next Door Program is financed by the Government through a 500 million lei “Budget Plus” financial package. The maximum limit for each project is 10 million lei. For small settlements (up to 1500 inhabitants) the financing is up to 2 million lei, for large settlements – up to 9 million lei (with a 10% contribution from the LPA). For villages with up to 1500 inhabitants, which are in the process of voluntary unification, up to 5 million lei can be allocated.
