Bulgaria has managed to win back the trust of Brussels, which has unfrozen more than one billion euros of aid since the new center-right government came into office, the prime minister has announced.

“Just for a few months the new cabinet managed to restore the trust of the European institutions and the first evidence is the unblocking of aid under programs suspended under the previous Socialist government,” Boyko Borisov said in the town of Vratsa.

The latest news from Brussels about unblocked funds came in November when the European Commission unblocked EUR 82,563 M in EU funding for Bulgaria under PHARE program, which was suspended last year for the country’s failure to adequately tackle corruption.

A total of EUR 340 M of contracted but unpaid aid were shelved after the Commission revoked the accreditation of the Central Finance and Contracts Unit of Bulgaria’s Finance Ministry and the Executive Agency of the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works in July 2008.

In an unprecedented move, the European Union’s executive arm upheld in November the same year a suspension of EUR 220 M under PHARE programme, designed to help Bulgaria prepare for its January 2007 accession to the bloc by funding infrastructure projects, and helping to strengthen institutions and the rule of law.

Brussels decision to unblock PHARE aid came after it released earlier in the year EUR 115 M of ISPA road funds and authorized payments of EUR 109,6 M blocked under the SAPARD agricultural program.

In a special report issued earlier, the EU commission said most EU funds are still on hold in Bulgaria due to weak financial supervision and scant follow-up on irregularities.

novinite.com