Brussels, 18/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - At the beginning of the new programming period (2014-2020) for the allocation of European Structural Funds, EUROPE interviewed Tomislav Donchev, Bulgarian deputy prime minister for EU Funds and Economic Policies, who explained the strategy followed by his government with regard to these funds for this period (interviewed by JC).
Agence Europe - Which rate of absorption do you hope to have at the end of the year?
Tomislav Donchev - With the First Minister, Boïko Borissov, we forecast a final rate of 92 or 93% - even if our goal is 100% total absorption. 90% is not a bad rate, for a first programming period (Ed: Bulgaria entered the EU in 2007 and 2007-2013 was therefore its first programming period). But it is too early to comment on the final result. What I can say is that our absorption rate is now around 68%, and that our rate of internal payments is around 83% (Ed: payments made by Bulgarian authorities to the beneficiaries, but not certified to the European Commission yet).
The European Commission proposed several tools to accelerate the absorption, like the launch of new projects and the use of financial instruments. But these measures are not really applicable to Bulgaria, as our main problem is over-contracting: under one of the programmes the amount of the projects contracted is around 150% above the budget, for the rest it is between 2-8% over the budget. The aim of over-contracting was to ensure a good absorption if some programmes encounter a problem and to have eligible reserve projects already implemented that could supplement risky and/or problematic ones. We will reduce the number of over-contracting and if needed, the respective amounts will be covered with national resources.
I asked all the authorities involved in the programmes to speed up their work as much as possible. We also conducted an analysis of all the projects and phased in some of them. Another tool that we use, in cases of big infrastructural projects, is the fact of paying a contractor before the investment becomes functional, meaning in use, on the basis of a guarantee.
How do you want to improve the use of EU funds in the 2014-2020 period?
We will start smarter and faster than in 2007. Now, we know better what we need and our administration has better capacities. Moreover, we simplified the legislative framework: instead of 20 ministerial decrees, like for the last period, there will only be one single law to deal with European funds. It was adopted by the Council of Ministers, and the Parliament will adopt it next month. We already learnt some lessons from the last period.
For the 2014-2020 period, how are you planning to make use of financial instruments?
For this period, we envisage to use a part of the European funds allocated to us to manage our financial instruments, aiming at building administrative capacity at national level instead of using the one of the European Investment Bank. About 10% of our financial framework for 2014-2020 will be spent through financial instruments. €120 million will go in a special operational programme for SMEs - as we just endorsed the Commission's 'SME initiative'. €650 million under the other programmes will be used for financial instruments and allocated into a single fund, with sub-funds corresponding to each programme.