Plugchieva: It is Possible for Bulgaria to Make a Financial Correction of ISPA Funding

It is possible that Bulgaria itself make financial corrections on the implementation of ISPA - the pre-accession programme of the EU if data showed that we would not manage to fulfill the deadlines of the European commission.

This was a deputy prime minister Plugchieva's comment for Re: TV, cited by Focus Agency. By October 30th the work on analyzing and assessing the programme implementation should be finished. The evaluation of the three pre-accession programmes - ISPA, SAPARD and PHARE - is expected in November.

Plugchieva admitted that the Commission's expectations were greater than the actual results of the auditing body which controls the implementation of the PHARE programme. The vice premier refused to make a detailed comment on the personnel issues in National Agency Road Infrastructure. According to her, our country can not afford the luxury of maintaining interpersonal relations at the expense of the speed and work-load needed for implementation of the programmes.

Plugchieva described a serious delay of Lyulin highway. If the speed of work remains the same, there would be a three year delay of the project. Plugchieva has appointed a special team with the task to draw an analysis and suggest a solution to the problem by October 30th. The report will be presented to the government and discussed with the EC.