site.btaEnvironment Minister Zhekova Does Not Expect Payments under OP Environment to Resume before October

Sofia, August 21 (BTA) - Caretaker Minister of Environment and Water Minister Svetlana Zhekova does not expect payments under Operational Programme Environment to be resumed before October. The ambition is approval of the new OP Environment by November, Zhekova said in an interview for BTA.

Spiridon Alexandrov no longer heads the operational programme's Managing Authority. Yana Georgieva has been chosen to replace him, Zhekova added.Efforts are concentrated on minimizing the risk of loss of  European funds, to which end the ministry has focused on speeding up the processes of verification, payments to beneficiaries and the preparation of reports on certificates to the National Fund. In this they have the support of the Deputy Prime Minister as well as the Ministry of Finance, the minister said.

A notification from the European Commission about some 50 million euro automatic reduction was received in August which is why the team will strive to minimize other possible losses. Their major objective remains sending to the National Certifying Authority payment applications for a total of 747,175,824.56 leva (317,944,050 euro - EU part), in order to minimize the loss of funds under OP Environment for 2014, Zhekova explained.

The team is in for dynamic work over the coming weeks because the requests for payments waiting for verification total slightly over 300 million leva.

Regarding the new OP Environment Zhekova says the water sector continues to be the main priority. The waste sector remains a priority, too, but flexible forms for financing projects will be sought: funds will be used to prevent the formation of waste, not so much at their disposal. It is time to begin to see waste as a resource and to use them for recycling - or not allow it toaccumulate at all, she added.

Biodiversity as a fundamental value of Bulgaria will continue to be a priority and efforts will be aimed at completing the necessary documents for managing the NATURA 2000 network.

Two new subjects - air and climate - will be included in the next programming period. A real-time water management system will be created and solutions for flood prevention and risk management will be implemented. Municipal programmes for ambient air quality will be reviewed and analysed, and measures for
improving the quality of ambient air in an urban environment will be implemented under Priority Axis Improvement of the Quality of Ambient Air.

The total financial resource of the new OP Environment (2014-2020) is 1,504,824,141.00 euro, the minister said. A total of 1,033,619,883 euro have been designated for the Water Sector, 219,005,009 euro for Waste, 101,390,000 euro for NATURA 2000 and biodiversity, 50,000,000 euro for flood prevention and risk management and another 50,000,000 euro for improving the quality of ambient air.