January 14 (SeeNews) - The European Commission said on Tuesday it is providing 266 million euro ($305 million) for an extension of the coverage of the cadastre system in Romania, especially in rural areas, aiming to strengthen legal certainty and increase transparency regarding the property rights record system.
The funds come from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the Commission said in a statement.
"This Cohesion Policy project is supporting people living in rural areas by protecting their property rights. The project will also facilitate landowners' access to EU funds and will contribute to the economic development of these regions, as increased legal certainty will stimulate investment and accelerate the implementation of those infrastructure projects which are crucial," European commissioner for regional policy, Corina Cretu, said.
The EU funding will be used to register land in rural areas, to scan and archive existing registers, to train the staff involved in these activities, to stimulate the use of information and communication technology for registration services, and to improve the way the project is managed and monitored.
At present, less than one quarter of all Romanian properties are recorded in the Land Book. This major EU-funded project covers 660 administrative units in seven Romanian rural areas, approximately 25% of the national territory, complementary to the national process of mapping completion and inclusion of properties in the digitized database of the Land Registry Central Register, the Commission noted.
($= 0.8643 euro)