September 1, 2010

The Interim report on the absorption of EU funds in Bulgaria for 2010 was discussed at a regular meeting of the parliamentary Committee on European Affairs and Oversight of the European Funds.

The meeting was attended by the National Assembly Chair Tsetska Tsacheva, the Minister in charge of the EU funds management Tomislav Donchev, the ambassadors of Belgium and Spain Mark Mihilsen and Jorge Fuentes and representatives of state institutions.

Parliament Speaker Tsetska Tsacheva raised the need for a special law to be introduced regarding the EU funds, in order to bring together all the existing legislation in this respect.


According to the Interim report, the settled funds of the Operational Programmes under the Convergence Objective amount to € 561,995,868 as of June 30th of this year. The total budget for absorption by Bulgaria is about eight billion euros. Most funds were paid under the programme for Development of competitiveness of Bulgarian business - € 216,932,910, which has the largest budget - € 1,162,215,552. For comparison, on June 30th last year the amount paid was € 80,131,286 and € 207,931,417 on December 31. The report shows that the sharp 7% increase of the payments in the period from June 30, 2009 to June 30, 2010, and the increase over 34 % of the completed contractual procedures in comparison with the year 2009, are a good impetus to accelerate the utilization of the available resources. The report also points to the improved communication and cooperation with Brussels that have a preventive meaning as well. The Committee notes that a system for better coordination in the management of EU funds through institutional, regulatory and administrative measures was established during this period. According to it, it is necessary to increase the volumes of contracting and payments, with an emphasis on the quality of the projects. The report of the Committee recommends the search of ways to simplify and streamline the procedures for the project preparation, implementation and payments, together with improving the administrative capacity in the preparation and effective implementation of quality projects .