site.bta Deputy PM Donchev: "Bulgaria Not at Risk of EU Funds Suspension"

Deputy PM Donchev: "Bulgaria Not at Risk of EU Funds Suspension"

Sofia, January 24 (BTA) - Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev dismissed opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party's allegations that Bulgaria risks suspension of EU funds assistance. "At this point, there is no risk of payments from the EU funds being blocked. If anybody wants insurance for a couple of years ahead, there is no such thing as collision damage waiver in politics. It all depends on how the system is managed at each point in time," Donchev said in a National Television interview Tuesday morning.

In his words, at the technical level, the whole machinery is now running smoothly. The new programming period started at least a year earlier than the previous one, and one-third of the entire budget has already been contracted, which places Bulgaria far ahead of all other Member States. A total of 1,300 million leva, or 7.5 per cent of the allocated resources, have been paid out, which is double the comparable amount in the previous programming period - by all means a fine performance, compared to the rest of the Member States, Donchev argued.

At the political level, however, the Socialists' political rhetoric doomsays apocalypse as a result of GERB's tenure. According to him, the reason why the Left raise the issue of the so-called "conditionalities," which "send them into political hysterics," is that they are obviously at a loss of campaign messages. "Back since 2012, Bulgaria has made a major progress with regard to all those sensitive reforms," the Deputy PM said, adding that "a large part of the required reforms were finalized back at the end of last year," including public procurement. "Ten more [reforms] remain, on which work has essentially been completed, and they must be reported to the European Commission by the deadline set, which is the middle of this year," Donchev explained.

"Making a terrible hodgepodge of menacingly sounding terminology: suspension, blocking, recovery, infringement procedure, which are often completely unrelated to one another, discredits the whole system of EU funds management. This stirs up a commotion and gives cause for concern to all beneficiaries," the Deputy PM noted, adding that European Commission officials, too, are contacting him to ask what is wrong.

He advised against "doing some very foolish things" over the next six months and would like to see continuity instead.

Donchev warned about the risks of a possible purge of the Managing Authority. "An attempt to replace experts by party 'yes men' usually has disastrous effects. I attach prime importance to continuing what has been done over the last years in the energy sector," he said, listing further attempts and efforts to implement the Belene N-plant project as a market project and a categorical need to press ahead with a full liberalization of the market. "A lot remains to be done. Systematic efforts and leadership are needed in each sphere," he said.