site.btaEuropean Council Ready to Extend by 12 Months Deadlines for Absorption of EUR 160 Mln Provide for Bulgarian Border Security

European Council Ready to Extend by 12 Months Deadlines for Absorption of EUR 160 Mln Provide
for Bulgarian Border Security

Sofia, June 17 (BTA) - In a letter received on Friday, EU Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos wrote that the European Council is ready to extend by 12 months the deadlines for the absorption of 160 million euro provided for Bulgarian border security, Interior Minister Valentin Radev told journalists here on Saturday.

Radev recalled that when he conferred with Avramopoulos in Brussels a month ago, he raised the question of the extension, citing objective reasons like the intervening presidential and parliamentary elections. The Bulgarian side was then assured that everything possible would be done, but Bulgaria should show good progress of absorption in sufficiently transparent procedures. Friday's letter thanked for the information provided by Bulgaria and stated that the European Council was prepared to extend the deadlines by 12 months. Radev said that some 35 million euro have already been absorbed and that work in public procurements is improving daily.

The Interior Minister told the media that as from Friday, only 5 km of the fence along Bulgaria's border with Turkey remain to be finished. In his words, this effort should be followed up by a second phase: improving the integrated surveillance systems, adding the missing technical surveillance devices, equipping the border policemen and procuring transport vehicles.

The absorption of the EU funding for border security was discussed earlier in the day at a meeting of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov with Radev, State e-government Agency Chairman Rossen Jeliazkov and Interior Ministry Chief Secretary Mladen Marinov. Measures to ease the administrative burden at the Traffic Police and the 112 single emergency number system were also on the agenda.