Bulgaria's coalition government is discussing the establishment of an agency or even a ministry to manage the European Union (EU) funding after the bloc cut its aid to the Balkan country, local press reported Sunday.
An expert working group is going to check the experience of other EU member states before making a decision regarding the creation of the agency.
The European Commission, the executive body of the EU, published a report last Wednesday on Bulgaria's management of EU funds, saying Bulgaria's fight against high-level corruption and organized crime was not producing results and the Commission had to act to protect taxpayers' money.
The commission, which had provisionally suspended EU funding in the last six months, decided to formalize the suspension of EU funding for Bulgaria and to withdraw the accreditation of two Bulgarian agencies handling EU aid.
"If one reads the report carefully, they will see that it was written at a time when Bulgaria's Cabinet has taken measures in the right direction -- personnel and structural changes, appointment of a deputy prime minister. So, we must further continue with changes and reforms," Deputy Prime Minister Meglena Plugchieva, who is in charge of the EU funds' absorption and management, told the ruling coalition at a meeting Saturday.
As for widespread media reports saying an additional 1.6 billion euros (2.5 billion U.S. dollar) has been blocked from the EU transportation program, Plugchieva assured that the blocked funds would be compensated very shortly by resources from the state budget.
An emergency plan to respond to the aid cut has been adopted by the ruling majority at the Saturday meeting in Bansko.
Source: Xinhua
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