EU set to unblock EUR 115 million aid for Bulgaria
(BRUSSELS) - The European Commission is set to unblock 115 million euros (156 million dollars) in aid to Bulgaria on Tuesday, frozen for a year due to corruption concerns, an EU spokesman said.
"We are expecting a decision along those lines," Dennis Abbott, spokesman for EU Regional Policy Commissioner Danuta Huebner, told AFP Monday.
"We are happy they (Bulgarian authorities) have done what we asked," in particular on public procurement conflicts of interests, he added.
Bulgaria joined the European Union in 2007 but was placed under a special Cooperation and Verification monitoring mechanism for its failure to combat widespread corruption and organised crime.
Fraud concerns prompted the European Commission last year to freeze a total of 800 million euros in EU farm, regional development and infrastructure aid to the newcomer.
Bulgaria has already definitively lost 220 million euros out of that total.
At the national road agency, which was to be the biggest beneficiary of the programmes, work was virtually frozen by a series of scandals and management changes.
It is these funds which are set to be unblocked on Tuesday.
The rest, including farm aid and stretching back to pre-membership aid, remains frozen.
"It's not the end of the process," the commission spokesman said.
Huebner is set to hold a press conference with Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister Meglena Plugchieva on Tuesday.
In July, Brussels will publish a new report on the reform of Bulgaria's judicial system and the fight against corruption, as well as the country's management of EU funds.
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