site.btaMonitoring Committee Reviews EU Funds' Effect on Bulgarian Economy

Monitoring Committee Reviews EU Funds' Effect on Bulgarian Economy

Sofia, November 27 (BTA) - EU funds remain a driving force for the development of the Bulgarian economy and the country as a whole, said Deputy Prime Minister in charge of EU funds Tomislav Donchev Friday. He was speaking at a meeting of the Monitoring Committee of the National Strategic Reference Frame 2007-2013 and the Bulgaria-EU Partnership Agreement.

The committee monitors the implementation of the two main strategic programme documents on the management of EU funds, including all operational programmes, the Rural Development Programme and the Fisheries and Aquaculture Programme.

Between 2007 and 2013, EU funds accounted for 9 per cent of total budget expenditures but 80 per cent of public investments. Donchev said that an in-depth analysis has suggested that the Cohesion Policy had achieved one of its main goals in Bulgaria: to reduce economic disparities across regions.

The net effect from EU funds on Bulgaria's economy in the 2007-2013 period was positive. The 2015 GDP in real terms is 10.1 per cent higher compared with a scenario without EU funds.

The effects assessed by Sibila, a macroeconomic model for impact assessment of EU structural funds on Bulgaria's economy, suggest a positive effect on the competitiveness of Bulgaria's economy with a cumulative increase of private investments of 32.8 per cent by the end of 2015.

By the end of 2015, the rate of unemployment is 6.2 per cent lower compared with what it would have been without EU funds, which translates into 30 per cent fewer jobless persons. At the same time the number of employed grew by 14.4 per cent, or 372,000.

"We are witnessing considerable progress in the implementation of operational programmes. By November 11 2015, 107 per cent of the available funding was contracted and 92 per cent have been paid out," said Donchev. So far Bulgaria has implemented contracts worth 7,085 million euro and beneficiaries have received 7,269 million euro.

The meeting took stock of the launch of the Unified Management Information System for EU Structural Instruments in Bulgaria which collects applications electronically. So far nearly 5,200 project proposals have been submitted using the system, or 20 per cent of the total project proposals in 2007-2013.