site.btaEmployers, Incumbent Discuss Opportunities under Juncker Plan

Employers, Incumbent Discuss Opportunities under Juncker Plan

Sofia, January 16 (BTA) - The Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria (KRIB) Monday organized a conference on the subject of "The Juncker Plan - Opportunities and Results". Representatives of European institutions have also been invited to participate.

Speaking at the forum, outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev said Bulgaria's primary task is to learn how to use European funds from financial engineering.

Donchev pointed out that there will be European funding and cohesion policy after 2020, but it definitely will not look like the current one. The Deputy PM forecast that if the share of funding designated to the financial engineering instruments amounts to 10 per cent of the entire financial framework, in the next programming period it will be at least one-fourth.

Financial instruments are like soft drugs and do not generate the bad dependence grants create for business, thus outgoing Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov jokingly described the future significance they have for the EU and Bulgaria specifically.

Goranov spoke about the different pillars of the investment plan for Europe. To date, the first pillar includes four financial intermediaries in Bulgaria who have contracts under the European Investment Fund for SMEs and companies with medium market capitalization for credits to small and medium-sized enterprises with more favourable conditions.

In respect to the second pillar, there is increased interest of Bulgarian enterprises in the European investment project portal which was launched officially in the middle of 2016, Goranov said. He pointed out that to date seven Bulgarian projects have been published on the portal website. The projects are in the field of energy, transport, gas infrastructure, and tourism, among others.

According to the latest statistics for Bulgaria, the country ranks among the first by number of submitted projects for participation and number of applications for consultative assistance.

In respect to the Fund of Funds, the outgoing minister that this is an extreme challenge, which encountered considerable skepticism on the part of the EC, which doubted the capacity of the countries to manage these financial instruments independently.

The total budget of Operational Programme Human Resources Development for implementation through the financial instruments amounts to 107.5 million leva, outgoing Social Minister Zornitsa Roussinova said. The first tranche of 70 million, while 35 million leva have been set aside are intended for the development of entrepreneurship. These are for creating opportunities for micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises, either start-up or ones that have been functioning for up to two years, to receive microcredits ranging between 5,000 and 50,000 leva.

An additional 12 million leva have been set aside for youth guarantee, which will be established for innovative young people under 29 who want to launch their own business to be supported through opportunities for micro-crediting.

The support of social enterprise as a manner of inclusion of socially vulnerable groups in the labour market was another important subject at the forum. Roussinova recalled that over 300 social enterprises supported by local authorities were launched over the transitional programme period. Now there will be new opportunities for social enterprises through microcrediting related to employment. The Juncker Plan sees the levels of new jobs at EU level at 1,400,000 new jobs.

Outgoing Environment Minister Ivelina Vassileva said addressing the forum. The development of a financial instrument in the water sector is under way, with plans for signing an agreement with the Fund of Funds placing at disposal 10 per cent for the Waters Priority Axis. These funds are for bank guarantees and investment credits in water and sewerage networks. The idea is that these funds will be doubled through the Fund of Funds.

She recalled that the first agreement with the financial manager of the Funds of Funds for the new financial instrument amounts to 52 million leva under OP Environment. These funds are expected to increase to 250 million leva and to be placed at the disposal of business and institutions.

Outgoing Regional Development and Urban Planning Lilyana Pavlova said she expects 2017 to enable Bulgaria to "unblock" not only grant Euro-funding, should also continue after 2020 for basic infrastructure of which Bulgaria is direly in need, but also along the line financial engineering. She appealed to business to be creative and innovative with urban environment projects, the relevant funds having a strating rource of 370 million leva, distributed in three funds for urban development. A total of 270 million leva of these are for start-up capital for urban development projects and 100 million leva for tourist infrastructure with an option for another 100 million under OP Regions in Growth as an additional investment for projects approved under the Fund of Funds and focused on restoration of monuments of culture or investigation of archaeological sites.