EC Rejects Bulgaria EU Funds Assessments, PM Heads for Brussels

Bulgaria's Foreign Minister, Rumiana Jeleva (right) said a delegation led by PM Borisov would go to Brussels for talks with the EC. Photo by BGNES

The European Commission has turned down the compliance assessments submitted by Bulgaria under four of the seven operational programs for EU funding.

This was announced Monday by Dennis Abbott, Spokesperson of the Regional Policy EU Commissioner, the Bulgarian National Radio reported.

The Commission has send back to the Bulgarian authorities the compliance assessments under operational programs "Transport", "Competitiveness", "Administrative Capacity", and "Technical Assistance", Abbott said.

The EC still has not decided about the Human Resources Development assessments, which has been submitted by Bulgaria's previous government of Sergey Stanishev, just as the other four assessments. Bulgaria still hasn't sent to Brussels compliance assessments under the Environment and Regional Development programs.

The main reason the EC rejected Bulgaria's assessments are continuing weakness in the launching of a central information system for management and control of the EU funded projects.

Without the Commission approving the compliance assessments, Bulgaria cannot start receiving the interim payments, which is about 80% of the EUR 7 B that the country should get under the seven operational programs.

Abbott is quoted as saying that Bulgaria had not lost any money because of the rejected assessments as there was no deadline for their approval; the rejection also did not affect the advance payments of about EUR 600 M that Bulgaria had already received.

In 2008, the EC rejected Bulgaria's compliance assessments for the first time over the insufficient administrative capacity of the auditing unit and the nonfunctional information system.

Bulgaria's Foreign Minister, Rumiana Jeleva, announced Monday afternoon that the compliance assessments rejected by the EC could be corrected or fully replaced.

She also said that a delegation led by Bulgaria's Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, and including several of the respective Bulgarian Ministers, is going to Brussels on September 9-10, 2009, for talks with the President of European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, as well as with EU Commissioners and Directors-General.

On Sunday, Bulgaria's PM Borisov announced about the delegation to Brussels, and the preparation of special declaration to distance his government from the actions of the former cabinet on EU funds, but did not specify that he himself would also go to Brussels.

 

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