“Bulgaria happens to be one of the recipients with the highest amount of European funds absorbed despite the political instability in the country. Three main preconditions are necessary so that European funds reach all European citizens – administrative capacity, enough co-financing and political stability on the part of each country. When all the prerequisites are met we could talk about results and efficiency of the programs.” These are words of Iliana Ivanova , member of the European Court of Auditors, said during her presentation of the 2013 Annual Audit Report on the implementation of the 2013 EU Budget before the Budget and Finance Committee of the National Assembly. She added although Bulgaria was still experiencing some challenges the country was about to enter in its second program period with more experience and better results in the process of implementing  the cohesion policies.

The data of European auditors shows that 4,7 % of all payments covered by European funds were spend in violation of the rules; in most of the cases the member countries have had enough information to stop and correct the errors committed in the polices for shared management by the European Commission and the Member States.

“We have unveiled serious errors in the way of spending of the European budget in almost all parts and in all states. The errors committed are mostly in the areas of regional development, the energy and transport, and in the investments for development of agricultural regions.  We have realized that the systems for monitoring and control are not always effective and there are serious discrepancies in their efficiency in the different countries. We need to make more efforts to better the systems for control as well as to simplify the complicated mechanisms for spending of the European programs,”

Iliana Ivanova also outlined the basic risks described in the report for the projects under the cohesion policy, namely violations of the public procurement rules and the admissibility of beneficiaries.

“In the last years the European Court of Auditors has published a number of special reports emphasing on the issue that European funds should not only be spent but assessed according to clear criteria. The new legislative framework set up for the 2014-2020 Program Period is a step in the right direction,” Iliana Ivanova underscored.

She presented the report also before the members of the Bulgarian Audit Office.