During the European Debates Initiative, organized in relation to the upcoming10th anniversary of the signing of the Agreement for joining the EU by Bulgaria, it was reported that this country was not adequately using the opportunities provided by its membership. European Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva called on Bulgarian authorities to pay serious attention to absorption of European funds. By doing this countries like Poland, Latvia and Lithuania manage to achieve 1.7 – 2.1 percent growth each year. The European commissioner pointed out that for the past period Bulgaria had not managed to absorb over 4.5 billion euro. Some 16 billion euro more have been allocated for Bulgaria for the new seven-year period. There are reasons for the concerns of the Bulgarian commissioner.

According to the Directorate-General for Regional Policy of the European Commission, when it came to absorption of EU funds, Bulgaria occupied 23th place among the 28 member states of the EU for the 2007-2013 programming period. At the backdrop of acute need for external financing and constantly declining direct foreign investments, the Bulgarian authorities should be doing everything possible to take advantage of European subsidies and show that they respect every single euro from Brussels.

However, facts show a different picture. Bulgaria lags far behind in the absorption of financing allocated for it and in the EC chart it is only ahead of Italy, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Croatia. In the period 2007-2013, this country was able to absorb just two-thirds of the funds planned for it. This is the last year that allows using funds form the previous programming period. Still, the main goal of the European funding - the improvement of living conditions in Bulgaria and equalizing them to the conditions in the more developed parts of Europe seems more like a mirage than a feasible and realistic task.

The inability of the Bulgarian administration to demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed projects is caused by a number of reasons, but one of the major ones is the lack of experience of national institutions when working according to the standards of Brussels. Sofia is also often criticized about corruption and this should not be forgotten.

Currently, projects for the new operational programs of the EU for the period 2014-2020 are being discussed. So far things have been going well. Four new operational programs out of a total of six have already been approved. At the end of 2013 the Human Resources Development OP, which has a planned budget of over 1 billion euros, was approved. Later, green light was given to the Transport OP, totaling 1.9 billion euros. In late February, the office of the European Commission in Sofia announced that it approved the Good Governance OP, which totals EUR 336 million, as well as the Science and Education for Smart Growth OP, totaling 701 million euro.

Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister responsible for economic policy and EU funds, Tomislav Donchev, has shown optimism saying absorption of EU funds this year will be greater. There are still a few unresolved issues that are the subject of negotiations with the EC under "Regions in Growth" and "Environment". Minister Donchev hopes that almost all programs will be adopted by the end of the month. If approval of some major program was delayed, the government was ready to start the first projects in the first half of 2015, using loans from the budget.

English: Alexander Markov