Bulgaria Needs BGN 80 M to Fix Flood Damages - Minister

Bulgarian EU Funds Minister Donchev (left) with PM Borisov (right) and Agriculture Minister Naydenov (back). Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria needs no less than BGN 75 – 80 M to cope with the effects of the floods that hit the southeastern part of the country two weeks ago, according to estimates of EU Funds Minister Tomislav Donchev.

Donchev visited the city of Haskovo in the affected area on Monday meeting with local authorities to discuss the options to use EU funding to cope with the effects of the flooding, which resulted from a crack in the Ivanovo water reservoir dam an d cost the lives of 10 locals.

The minister did warn, however, that receiving EU funds to cover the flood damage costs will not be easy.

"EU money is not "quick money". It requires going through complex procedures, and there is no way to skip them," Donchev commented, as cited by Mediapool.

In his words, some of the money can come from the EU Operational Program "Rural Development," and some – from OP "Environment".

After the flood two weeks ago, it emerged that Bulgaria was entitled to BGN 102 M from OP "Rural Development" for disaster prevention but they were not utilized because no project application procedures had been started by the authorities.

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