site.btaEP's Budgetary Control Committee Discusses EU Funds Administration in Bulgaria

Brussels, July 12 (BTA Correspondent Nikolay Jeliazkov)  - The
European Parliament's Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT) late
 on Monday had an exchange of views with representatives of the
European Commission (agricultural and regional units) and of the
 European Anti-fraud Office (OLAF) on the administration of EU
funds in shared management in Bulgaria. The discussion was
organized in light of the recent US sanctions on Bulgarian
individuals and companies under the Global Magnitsky Act.

Whether the matter will later be discussed at a plenary session
of the European Parliament, is yet to be decided.

Among the documents for Monday's exchange of views is a country
fiche on Bulgaria extracted from an upcoming study on "The
Impact of Organised Crime on the EU's Financial Interests"
requested by the CONT, to be published in late July. According
to the country fiche, Bulgaria lost 1.2 billion leva in VAT to
fraud and evasion, tax avoidance, bankruptcies, financial
insolvencies and miscalculations in 2018, the latest figures by
the European Commission show.

"Between 2015 and 2019, OLAF detected fraudulent and
non-fraudulent irregularities in 1,126 cases under the European
Structural and Investment Funds and Common Agriculture Policy,
which is similar to the number of cases in other Eastern
European states," the fiche reads. "In 2019 alone, the number of
 irregularities reported as fraudulent in Bulgaria affecting the
 EU's
financial interests accounted for six in the agriculture sector
and for one in the context of cohesion policy and fisheries,
with the two combined amounting to more than 685,000 euro
together. Non-fraudulent activities were even higher with 184 in
 agriculture and 57 within cohesion policies and fisheries,
amounting to more than 13.9 million euro together in
expenditure," the document says.

The fiche cites data of the Center for the Study of Democracy,
according to which EU funds fraud in Bulgaria ranges between 70
million and 300 million leva a year. The abuses in EU programmes
 vary between 5 and 50 per cent of the funded project value.
With a total budget of 23.2 billion leva (11.7 billion euro),
the potential damages for the  2014-2020 programming period are
between 1.16 billion leva (0.59 billion euro) and 3.48 billion
leva (1.78 billion euro)   
        
NV/DS