Barroso Announced that EC will Unfreeze SAPARD Funding

"I welcome the strong words which which Prime Minister Boiko Borisov expressed his intention to fight corruption and to show zero tolerance in state authorities in Bulgaria at all levels", the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso said in a joint press conference in Brussels with the Bulgarian Prime Minister Borisov, Focus Agency reports.

added that by 2013, 6.850 billion euro of structural funds will be available to Bulgaria. According to the EC President, Boiko Borisov has demonstrated serious determination to cope with the problems concerning the control of European funding and added: "It is my pleasure to announce that we will restore the payments under the SAPARD Programme."

Jose Manuel Barroso also said that the extension of the ISPA deadlines would also be looked at.
"We reached agreements similar to those with Lithuania - up to 300 million euro until 2013", he commented regarding the compensations for the earlier shutdown of Kozloduy NPP but added, that in order for this to happen, two things are required: a legislative frame for such payments has to be in place and the source of the funding needs to be defined. The Commission will propose for examination the bid of Bulgaria for additional compensations for shutting down units III and IV of the power plant.
Barroso explained to the media that in order for our country to receive additional 300 million euros, legislative framework and financial resources are needed. He further reminded that green light for allocating the funding needs to be given by all EU Member States and promised to hold talks with their representatives.

ulgaria has to part of the overall energy market and it can contribute to the energy security of Europe, Jose Manuel Barroso emphasized. It became clear after their meeting that there is a possibility for the construction of Belene NPP to be co-funded by Euratom in case of a respective government decision.

The documents for joint energy projects with Russia will be sent to Brussels for our European partners to express their opinion, Prime Minister Boiko Borisov said. He made a commend on the ease with which some people in Bulgaria discuss the amount of funding for construction of the new nuclear plant.

Director of Directorate General Agriculture and Rural Development at the European Commission Jean-Luc Demarty stated after his meeting with Bulgarian Minister of Agriculture and Food Miroslav Naidenov, that he had signed the payments for SAPARD, government press service announced. "This starts the payment of the blocked programme funding", Minister Naidenov said. He assured Mr Demarty that the use of the SAPART funds will happen in line with EC rules.

So far 2404 SAPARD projects have been funded with the total of 793 902 398,94 BGN. For all SAPARD measures under the 321 projects left to be paid, 156 068 493,82 BGN are required.