The EU financing of PHARE and ISPA

published on 11/4/09 1:08 PM

\r\nDeputy minister Liliana Pavlova: "The road projects have remained without EN financing. However those priority and strategic transport arteries which construction has started will be completed with state funds."

Photo: "Dnevnik"

The PHARE and ISPA are two of the three pre-accession programmes financed by the EU to assist the applicant countries of Central and Eastern Europe in their preparations for joining the EU. Last year the EC blocked the means for the PHARE programme for Bulgaria because of registered violations and conflict of interests when approving and carrying out the construction of roads. As a result of this hundreds of road projects were stopped. The EU financing of ISPA (Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-Accession) is designed to address environmental and transport infrastructural priorities. According to the report of the EC for ten years Bulgaria has utilized merely 35 per cent of the finances for the three pre-accession programmes: PHARE, ISPA and SAPARD (Special Accession Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development). In figures this means the following: from the 1 billion 367 million euro determined for Bulgaria for the three programmes this year we have utilized a mere 488 million euro. When the deadlines expire Bulgaria will lose all unutilized means, which on the other hand it badly needs in order to improve and develop a contemporary infrastructure.

Of the projects of the ISPA programme in Bulgaria the Ministry for regional development and public works supervises three. The deadline to utilize the means for this programme is the end of next year and if it is not met the country will lose the money. Deputy minister Liliana Pavlova adds:

“As a whole these three projects are being realized within the time limit but with two of them we have risky components. We are delayed with the construction of the so called “Integrated water project – Rousse”. Due to the mechanism for monitoring of this project, as well as of the others that we are supervising, we can say that we are catching up. We have the promise and agreement of the contractor to speed up the construction work. We have a tight schedule and hope that by next year we will manage to finish the project for improving the city’s water supply network without demanding extension of the finance memorandum.”

The integrated water project for the Black sea coast town of Bourgas is proceeding according to schedule, says the Ministry for regional development and public works. The same is true for the water purifying stations along the Maritza river. It turned out, however, that some of the projects from the PHARE programme for roads are of unreasonable high value. Four of them, which are under construction, will be finished with means from the state budget.

“We give up their financing by PHARE because according to the rules of the EC these road projects cannot be financed”, explains Liliana Pavlova. “On the other hand they are of great social significance to us, because we are the ones that live here. Winter is approaching and we cannot leave them unfinished. That is why the government decided to finish them with national means”.

English version: Ivaila Bozhanova

По публикацията работи: Milka Dimitrova

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