On March 28, 2012, the Committee on European Affairs and Oversight of the European Funds (CEAOEF), discussed with representatives of the Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications, the National Railway Infrastructure Company and the Road Infrastructure Agency the progress in implementing the "Transport" Operational Program 2007-2013.
The Committee sitting was joined by Mr. Ivaylo Moskovski – Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications, who reported on the implementation of the "Transport" Operational Program 2007 - 2013. He announced in front of the CEAOEF members that under the Program are currently contracted more than 3.2 billion leva or almost 84% of its budget, and most projects are in the implementation phase. Mr. Moskovski said, that at the moment the funds disbursed to beneficiaries amount to 989 million leva or about 25% of the Program budget.
Minister Moskovski commented that Bulgaria has all chances to become the first country in the European Union to absorb all the funding available under an Operational Program during its first Programming Period. He explained that the main objective is to keep up the current work pace as funds disbursed under the program, start getting closer to the contracted amount. The Minister informed the Committee members that eight major projects are in progress and added that application forms for seven of them have been approved by the European Commission (EC). In the period January-February 2012, the European Commission has approved the application forms for the projects "Modernization of the railway sector in September - Plovdiv" and "Construction of the "Maritza" highway, Lot 1 and Lot 2”. The project for constructing the "Struma" highway is under evaluation by the Commission. In this respect, the total amount of funds for road projects, including the latter one, exceeds 1.7 billion leva. Moreover, Mr. Moskovski announced that the "Trakia" highway, Lots 2 and 3, and the Sofia subway new sections funded under the "Transport" Operational Program will be ready by the end of the summer.
In connection with the next Programming Period 2014-2020, Minister Ivailo Moskovski pointed out that a number of railway infrastructure projects, road projects and the third metrodiameter of the metro in Sofia are being prepared. There is a firm commitment to realize the project for navigation on the Danube river, which has been delayed due to purely technical reasons. It is also planned that the Bulgarian State Railways will become beneficiary of the program in order to complete the modernization of its passenger division after 2014.
In response to a question from the CEAOEF Deputy Chairman – Mr. Vladimir Toshev, the Minister said that he expects "Danube Bridge" 2 to be completed by late November this year. He thanked all political forces for their support of this strategic project.
A number of other topical issues were discussed, such as: the "Connecting Europe Facility", the collaboration with the international financial institutions, the internet communications, etc.
The CEAOEF Chairwoman– Ms. Monika Panayotova and the Committee members congratulated the Executive power representatives for the serious progress achieved under the “Transport" Operational Program 2007-2013 and called for continuation of this positive trend.


The Report from the hearing can be found at: http://parliament.bg/bg/parliamentarycommittees/members/240/reports/ID/3414