Bulgaria is to receive in the next five years EU funds to the tune of EUR 8.8 billion, the EU Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Cretu announced several days ago. EUR 5.8 billion will be granted under the Regional Fund and EUR 3 billion will come from the European Social Fund. This is good news, but what all this money means to Bulgaria?

The money allotted to Bulgaria in the new programming period of the European Union is more as compared to the former EU budget period when Bulgaria received EUR 4 billion under the Regional Fund. Now the money under that fund amount to nearly EUR 6 billion. Most of the money granted to Bulgaria in the previous programming period financed 72% of all public investments in that country - renovation of schools, fulfillment of new infrastructure projects, development of the water sector, etc. Bulgaria paid only 28% of the total amount of all projects fulfilled during the old programming period. It means that the country was highly dependent on European money and these figures proved the lack of local financing. In other words, Bulgaria would not have been able to do almost anything in its public sector without the EU funds. Commissioner Cretu promised that each Bulgarian citizen would feel the positive effect of the cohesion policy of the European Commission, taking into account the increased sum of the EU funds allotted to Bulgaria in the 2014-2020 programming period.

But why Brussels allots more money to Bulgaria in the new programming period? Perhaps, it wants to keep the situation calm along its external borders. Moreover, Bulgaria proved that it is able to put a barrier on the road of the migrant flow coming from the Middle East towards Western Europe. It would not be surprising, if Bulgaria becomes even a member of the Schengen Area soon, if the area, which allows border-free travel in the EU, does not collapse meanwhile.

The EU funds may be very important to Bulgaria, but they are not enough to fully finance the needs of that poor Balkan country. The country’s economy may be still very weak, but its gross domestic product amounts to nearly EUR 45 billion per year and the EU funds amount to only 3%-4% of its GDP, provided Sofia manages to absorb 100% of the European financing. However, in the previous programming period Bulgaria placed on the bottom of the EU Funds Absorption Ranking, which practically means that it was not able to use the full amount of the money granted by the European Union. Here is the latest proof - Sofia would receive EUR 1 billion by end 2015 if it manages to persuade Brussels that this amount of money is invested the right way.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov