EU Delivers Verdict on Bulgaria's Funds Management in Oct

Bulgaria in EU | September 28, 2009, Monday // 16:08|  views

The assessment will be made with regard to the absorption of pre-accession ISPA, PHARE and SAPARD programmes, the operational programs, payments in the agriculture sector and the Schengen Facility. Photo by EPA/BGNES

The European Commission will make an overall technical assessment of the management of European funds in Bulgaria and Romania by the middle of October, it emerged on Monday.

The report will cover the period from the two countries' accession to the European Union on January 1, 2007 to July 15. It comes at the demand of the Committee on Budgetary Control with the European Parliament and will be presented to the MEPs in the coming weeks.

The assessment will be made with regard to the absorption of pre-accession ISPA, PHARE and SAPARD programmes, the operational programs, payments in the agriculture sector and the Schengen Facility.

Catherine Day, Secretary-General of the European Commission, is in charge of the preparation of the report.

In July last year the European Union imposed unprecedented penalties on Bulgaria, freezing EUR 500 M in aid because of its failure to combat corruption, organized crime and misuse of EU funds.

The European commission report said the ex-communist country had done little or nothing to reform its judiciary and that most crimes by organised gangs and corruption went unpunished.

The commission suspended payments totalling EUR 486 M from three EU funds, warned that structural funds worth up to EUR 7 B over the next six years were at risk, and barred two Bulgarian payment agencies from receiving money from Brussels.

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Tags: European aid, ISPA, PHARE, SAPARD, Schengen

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