EU okays development aid for Bulgaria

(SOFIA) - The European Union gave the green light Tuesday to some 1.4 billion euros (1.9 billion dollars) in regional development and technical assistance for Bulgaria, the government said.

The EU decided to give Bulgaria access to the funds following positive assessments of two post-accession aid programmes, it said.

Finance Minister Simeon Djankov hailed the decision as "proof that we have set up adequate management and control systems to guarantee proper spending of the money."

Bulgaria's failure to prevent fraud and guarantee transparent use of the European pre-accession aid has already cost the country millions of euros in lost subsidies and jeopardised its access to post-accession funds.

Sofia is still waiting for the green light from Brussels on another five of the total of seven post-accession aid programmes, where some 6.85 billion euros of aid are available to the country between 2007 and 2013, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said.

Regional Development Minister Rosen Plevneliev pointed out, however, that it was up to the government and local authorities to do their homework and draw up a sufficient number of good projects in order to apply for the aid -- which would be lost if it is not used up.

"It is good that we can make payments now but the question remains whether we have enough good projects," Plevneliev said.

Some 1.36 billion euros of regional development aid are now available to potential beneficiaries for projects ranging from hospital and school refurbishments to road and water-system repair works.

A further 48 million euros of technical assistance are also available.