Brussels, 23/01/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Sunday 22 January, the European Investment Bank (EIB) signed a protocol agreement with the Bulgarian government for the granting of technical assistance for the implementation of projects co-funded by the European funds and the EIB in Bulgaria.
“The cooperation agreement signed (…) between the EIB and Bulgaria will allow technical assistance to be provided to carry out projects supported by the EU and co-funded by the Bank, and will speed up the absorption of European funds”, said Wilhelm Molterer. This agreement comes on top of technical assistance under JASPERS, which has been provided to Bulgaria by the EIB since 2006 to help it to put together projects - especially for the least-favoured regions - for funding by the European funds; it also reflects the role played by the Bank in granting loans, many of which are designed to cover Bulgaria's contribution to the implementation of these priority projects. Molterer said that he was “convinced that this effort, which required close coordination with the European Commission in the framework of a joint initiative with the Bulgarian government, will considerably facilitate the use of European funds in the best interests of Bulgaria”.
The protocol agreement signed on Sunday follows a similar agreement which provided support for the implementation of pre-accession projects.
In a press release, the EIB indicates that it will support priority projects to be funded over the programming period 2007-2013 and will help to develop the strategy to identify and select projects to be funded over the next period (2014-2020), in line with its mandate and with the relevant European legislation and working together with its partner, the European Commission, and with the JASPERS mechanism.
A similar protocol agreement was signed between Bulgaria and the World Bank. (OL/transl.fl)