[size=75:2hg8v2ei]novinite 26 January 2010

Brussels Threatens Bulgaria with Further EU Funds Blocking

Two days after Bulgaria's ministers accused their predecessors of covering up documents from the European Commission in what has been described as “an attempted sabotage”, Brussels has threatened new freezing of aid.

The sanctions will be triggered by the lack of response to official letters from Brussels, concerning Operational Program Environment, European Commission spokesperson Dennis Abbott told the Bulgarian News Agency.

The deadline for receiving Sofia answers expires on January 31, after which the procedure for blocking EU funds may be launched, he warned.

“Nobody wants to punish Bulgaria. We want to treat Bulgaria like all other member states, but we also want to be sure that the Bulgarian people benefit as much as they can from the European funds, which will total EUR 6,8 B until 2013,” Abbot pointed out.

Speaking at a press conference on Sunday Finance Minister Simeon Djankov accused the former leadership of the Environment and Waters Ministry of sweeping under the rug official letters from Brussels, which concerned Operational Program Environment.

According to Djankov some of the letters date back to February 2009, but have never been registered in the Environment department. The same violation has been found out in the Finance Ministry as well.

“There is only one word that can describe what the previous Socialist-led government has done and this is “sabotage”,” Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said.

“They knew what they have been doing and knew very well how badly this would affect the next government.” Borissov added.

In his words Bulgaria will lose about 15-20% of the funding for projects under Operational Program Environment due to lack of response to warnings over irregularities.

Bulgaria's previous Socialist-led government has been lately hit by a series of corruption scandals as the new center-right government, which swept the elections in July, is trying to shake off the country's reputation for rampant graft and crime.

Gosh guess Bulgaria really has to be very carefully. There is only so much the EU can put up with

Oddy