Slash! In a month, Bulgaria fell by one place in absorption of European funds! – 2024-09-08 08:27:43

/ world today news/ Since the beginning of the year, Bulgaria has been lagging behind in the ranking of the absorption of funds from the European funds from the old program period. This is shown by the statistics published on the website of the General Directorate “Regional Policy” of the European Commission.

In the middle of February, our country was in 23rd place in terms of absorption out of the 28 EU member states, while at the end of March we are already in 24th place, being overtaken by the Czech Republic, which until recently was in 25th place. that place.

According to the report of the DG “Regional Policy” of the EC, nine months before the deadline for the absorption of the European funds from the old program period 2007-2013, Bulgaria has absorbed 69% of the funds. The data cast serious doubt on the optimistic forecast of the rulers that in 2015, our country will be able to absorb about BGN 5 billion from the program period expiring on December 31. In order for this to happen, according to the report from Brussels, in a little more than 200 days, about 30% of their budget must be absorbed under the operational programs. A chance without loss of funds for now appears to be the only Operational Program “Development of Human Resources”.

The main factor for the delay in absorption is the serious backlog in the implementation of construction activities on the projects financed with the funds of the “Regional Development”, “Transport” and “Environment” Operational Programs. In April, the Managing Authorities of the Operational Programs must submit a report on the risky projects and estimated data on the expected percentage that will not be absorbed by the end of the program period. This will make it clear how much of the 5 billion BGN that could be paid out will actually go into the Bulgarian economy and how much will have to be returned to the EU budget.

According to the latest report of the DG “Regional Policy” of the EC, the first three places in terms of absorption of European solidarity are Lithuania with 93.7%, Portugal with 92.6% and Estonia with 92.3%. In 23rd position with 71.9% is the Czech Republic, followed by Italy, Slovakia, Romania and Croatia.