It is expected that the General Director of the Directorate for Enlargement in The European Commission, Michael Lee, will report in mid April, whether the Bulgarian Government has provided enough evidence that the PHARE programme in Bulgaria is functioning and the noted irregularities affect only certain projects. This was announced by Dimitar Ivanovski, Deputy Minister of Finance before the National Assembly’s Acquisition of European Funds Subcommittee.

He added that the Bulgarian Government has to reply by 31 March 2008 to the questions in the letter of the Director General, whether there exist violations in the absorption of funds Under PHARE Programme. He expressed his conviction that the government reply will reestablish the confidence between the Bulgarian authorities and the European Commission and said that funds have never been paid before the required package of documents was supplied by the beneficiaries.

The Government has increased its control over the departments in charge of managing European funds, following the calls of the European Commission, added Ivanovski.

The subcommittee is to continue his active collaboration with the Finance Ministry, so that the Parliament can track out the efficiency of the measures taken by the Government on the lawful acquisition of the European funds.