On 9 March 2011 the Committee on European Affairs and Oversight of the European Funds has been informed by the Deputy Minister of Environment and Water Ivelina Vasileva on the current state and the progress achieved under the “Environment” 2007 - 2013 Operational Program and the projects under the ISPA Programme/Cohesion Fund (Regulation 1164/94) in the “Environment” sector, managed by the Ministry of Environment and Water. During the meeting the Committee posed series of questions on the topic and the following main aspects of the hearing can be brought forward:

• At 8 March 2011, grant award contracts amounting at around 1 077 mln. leva have been concluded under the “Environment” 2007 - 2013 Operational Programme (30,6% of the funds available for the present Financial Perspective) and around 263 mln. leva have been paid (7,5% of the funds available);
• For the past 5 months over 92 mln. leva have been contracted and over 80 mln. leva have been paid under the “Environment” 2007 – 2013 Operational Programme;
• The absorption rate under the “Environment” 2007 - 2013 Operational Program for the past 12 months has increased by 2,6 times;
• The measures taken for improving the quality of the “Environment” 2007 – 2013 Operational Programme management have been presented before the Committee incl.: simplification of the application procedures and the project management, intensification of payments, maintaining a constant dialogue and feed-back with beneficiaries, etc.;
• The current state of the projects under the ISPA Programme/Cohesion Fund (Regulation 1164/94) in the “Environment” sector, managed by the Ministry of Environment and Water has been outlined. The forthcoming steps in the year have also been marked.

The hearing on the topic has been accompanied by a fruitful discussion within the Committee on European Affairs and Oversight of the European Funds and answers to a number of questions have been given during the meeting incl.: measures for speeding up the payments under the “Environment” 2007 – 2013 Operational Programme, plans of the Managing Authority for the absorption of the funds under the Operational Programme by the end of the Programming Period, vision on the support for settlements with Population Equivalent between 2 000 and 10 000, etc.

The presentation and discussion of the information on the progress under the “Environment” 2007 - 2013 Operational Program and the projects under the ISPA Programme/Cohesion Fund (Regulation 1164/94) in the “Environment” sector, managed by the Ministry of Environment and Water is a part of the series of hearings before the Committee on European Affairs and Oversight of the European Funds aimed at exerting political control over the activity of the state administration structures engaged in the management of the European funds in the country. The materials and the debates of the meetings will be used in the elaboration of the Interim and Annual Reports of the Committee on the absorption of the EU funds in the Republic of Bulgaria.

The Report from the hearing can be found at (available only in Bulgarian):
http://parliament.bg/bg/parliamentarycommittees/members/240/reports/ID/2572