Bulgaria Goes for Unfreezing Hopeless EU Cash for Sake of Image

Bulgaria's PM Borisov (left) believes that all EU funds should be unfrozen even if Bulgaria has no time to absorb them for image's sake. Photo by BGNES

Bulgarian Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, has stated his government would try to unblock all of the country's frozen EU funds even though it was clear Bulgaria would not be able to absorb some of them.

Answering a question of Darik Radio whether there were damages done by the previous government that the new cabinet wouldn't be able to correct, Borisov replied there were frozen funds under the PHARE and ISPA program.

In his words, even though it is already impossible to absorb those EU funds before the experiation of the deadline, his team would try to convince the EC to unfreeze them in order to improve Bulgaria's image.

"It is an indisputable fact that Bulgaria has had a very bad image in Brussels. It is up to us now to change it. It is crucial that the people in Brussels have hopes about us, and are giving us the chance to do that," Borisov declared.

On September 9 and 10, when he made his first official visit to Brussels, the European Commission announced the unblocking of EUR 140 M of Bulgaria's SAPARD program funds that were frozen in 2008 over violations.

The Prime Minister said Bulgarian had been perceived as the most corrupt, poorest country with frozen funds, and now the unfreezing of the SAPARD money had had a huge impact on its image.

Regarding the conflict that flared between him and President Georgi Parvanov over the last week, Borisov said he wouldn't talk about that because "everybody should be doing their job".

 

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