On 23 February 2011, the Minister of Labour and Social Policy Totyu Mladenov and the Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Policy Krasimir Popov presented before the Committee on European Affairs and Oversight of the European Funds the progress and the current state under the “Human Resources Development” 2007 - 2013 Operational Program. The following more important aspects have been highlighted during the meeting:

• At 17 February 2011, 1 754 grant award contracts have been concluded under the Programme amounting at 1 116 mln. leva (actually 47% of the funds for the present Programming Period have already been contracted) and around 217 mln. leva have been paid (over 9% of the funds available);
• For the past 4,5 months, 83 mln. leva have been contracted and over 300 new grant award contracts have been concluded, together with new 50 mln. leva being paid under the Programme;
• The absorption for the past 12 months has increased by 2,3 times;
• A synergy with other sources of funding is actively being sought for increasing the effectiveness of the measures under the Programme. A good example in this direction is the joint support in the area of child care deinstitutionalization supported also under the “Regional Development” 2007 – 2013 Operational Programme;
• 47 grant award procedures have been planned for launching in 2011 under the Programme with a total budget of over 1 bln. leva;

The hearing generated serious interest and discussions within the Committee on European Affairs and Oversight of the European Funds and answers to a number of questions have been given in the debate, incl.: measures for speeding up the payments under the Programme and ensuring the sustainability of results, support envisaged under the Programme for young people at the labour market and the provision of better care for disabled people, etc.

The presentation and discussion of the information on the progress under the “Human Resources Development” 2007 - 2013 Operational Program 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://www.parliament.bg/bg/parliamentarycommittees/members/240/reports/ID/2537