WILL THE EU FUNDS FOR BULGARIA BE STOPPED – A DISCUSSION IN ‘THE DAY BEGINS’ PROGRAMME
The European Parliament adopted a recommendation containing a call on the European Commission to take a decisive position towards Bulgaria and to seriously review whether the use of EU funds by the country is possible in accordance with the...
The European Parliament adopted a recommendation containing a call on the European Commission to take a decisive position towards Bulgaria and to seriously review whether the use of EU funds by the country is possible in accordance with the rules.
In a sitting on 3rd April, the MEP’s European Parliament’s Budget Committee expressed deep concern over the lack of progress under the monitoring mechanism for cooperation and verification, ongoing widespread corruption and the difficulty in delegation of responsibility and correcting mistakes.
The recommendation is part of a report for the approval of expenses made by the European Commission in 2012 and are not binding. The report however led to reactions from Bulgarian politicians.
Who is to blame for this negative recommendation, what would the Bulgarian government do to refute it and is there a real danger in the near future the EU funds for Bulgaria to be stopped. These were the questions we asked the MP from the left wing BSP party, Denitsa Karadzhova and MP from the right wing GERB party, Velina Vassileva during the BNT morning programme ‘The Day Begins’.
According to Denitsa Karadzhova from the ruling BSP, the report does not cause any legal consequences and cannot lead to a decision for freezing the EU funds for Bulgaria. Karadzhova assured that the government made efforts to complete the current programme period with minimum losses of EU funds.
The MP from the opposition GERB, Velina Vasileva, however disagreed with this argument and remarked that GERB’s main criticism towards the current government was because there were no specific actions and measure undertaken for dealing with problems concerning the management of EU funds.
Vassileva underlined that that the criticism was towards the current government. In her opinion, BSP’s arguments that the report covers a transitional period is a form of defense and ignores the conclusions in it. According to Vassileva the recommendations of the report are “a slap for the current Bulgarian government”.
The two MP’s however were united in their opinion that the issues related to management of EU funds were nonpartisan and they concerned national interests, which required united efforts.
