EU freezes part of funds to Romania

The European Commission has frozen funding to Romania aimed at developing human resources amid concerns over irregularities, a Romanian government spokesman said on Tuesday.

The European Commission halted funding after the Romanian auditing authority found irregularities in the management of the human resources development programme, worth a total of 3.5 billion euros ($4.6 billion).

The Romanian government hopes that a solution will be found before the end of March so that funding may resume soon.  The government insists that unlike suspension, which can only be lifted after six months, an interruption of funding is a lesser penalty, which can be lifted as soon as improvements are enacted.