Brussels, 28/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - Recently, Bulgaria has made a remarkable effort with regard to cohesion by increasing its rate of structural fund absorption. The country is now reported to have overtaken Italy, for example. On Wednesday 27 March, European Regional Policy Commissioner Johannes Hahn told the Bulgarian minister responsible for regional development, Ekaterina Zaharieva, who was on a visit to Brussels, how pleased he was with the development. The commissioner welcomed the substantial progress made by the Bulgarian authorities on the acceleration of payments, and urged Bulgaria to continue along this road.
Furthermore, national authorities in Bulgaria have already begun preparations for programmes to be financed by the EU in 2014-2020, a subject that came into the discussions held between the commissioner and the Bulgarian minister. Zaharieva said that energy efficiency will remain a top priority in Bulgaria and expressed her willingness to create a national progamme covering all energy efficiency measures for housing, public buildings and companies. (MD/transl.jl)