BULGARIA TO REQUEST THE AMOUNT OF BGN 16.5 BN FROM THE EU FOR THE PROGRAMMING PERIOD 2014-2020

"Bulgaria will be able to receive no less than BGN 16.5 bn in EU funds for the next programming period 2014-2020," stated Tomislav Donchev, Minister for EU Funds Management yesterday. He explained that this is money that will come directly from the EU, without the need for public co-financing. The funds which Bulgaria has received for the current period 2007-2013, under 7 operational programmes amount to BGN 13 bn. They correspond to approximately 2.5% of the country's GDP. According to Rosen Plevneliev, Minister of Regional Development and Public Works, the country will need about BGN 11 bn for the period 2014 - 2020. Tomislav Donchev said, in turn, that these are requests that Brussels is not obliged to satisfy. "We need not less than BGN 10 bn for the water sector alone, but it does not mean that the EU will grant us this amount," he said.

Preliminary calculations indicate that the increase in the funding that we are negotiating is between 15% and 20% of the money, which we use now. "In a more optimistic scenario, we can talk about an increase of 30% but in no case about a two-fold raise," said the Minister for EU Funds Management.

Nearly 1,000 state experts, involved in the absorption of EU funds, will be sent from Sofia to other regions of the country in order for the reforms in the management of EU funds to be implemented. Currently, a total of 1,900 people are employed in this sector and all of them work in the capital. Mobile teams which travel around the country were set up only under OP Regional Development and OP Competitiveness. "The remuneration scheme will be changed as well," said Donchev. It will be linked to the personal performance and results achieved by the unit in which the experts operate. Currently, the salaries of the administration are in the range of between BGN 700 and BGN 3,000.