The parliamentary mission will check corruption in EU funds in Bulgaria
The mission in Bulgaria
“The Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT) deals with European control of European finances. We are trying to protect taxpayers’ money from abuse. In some countries, there are problems with this and the control of subsidies. Our goal is to help create mechanisms of action to prevent the misuse of European funds in the future, “MEP Tomas Zdehovski (EPP, Czech Republic), part of the mission in Sofia, which arrives today, told Capital.
The work program for delegation includes meetings with the Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, the Prosecutor Ivan Geshev, as well as with senior government officials and civil servants directly or indirectly involved in the administration and management of European funds in Bulgaria, including the Ministry of Interior. works, the National Assembly, etc. According to sources in Brussels, the focus of the talks will be the concentration of coordination and control of funds in the Ministry of Finance, which will be discussed with Deputy Prime Minister Asen Vassilev, and Deputy Minister of Agriculture Momchil Nekov will discuss both agricultural funds and restrictions. for the amount of grain.
“We have a really busy agenda. We plan to meet with civil society activists and journalists, and with politics. As we should hear from them, if they think the measures taken are sufficient. If not, where do you see what they think could be improved?” “We see very concrete proposals on the misuse of EU funding in Bulgaria,” Zdehovski added.
Countries below cost
The visit comes at a very crucial moment for Bulgaria. After two programming periods, the EU has the function of functioning the money absorption system, which, however, continues through numerous trials. The main breakthroughs are the audit units – OSES in the Ministry of Finance, the separate one reaches the audit unit for agricultural funds, as well as the fact that the Public Procurement Agency can identify irregularities and problems, but has no power to stop them. Unlike other countries in Eastern Europe, Bulgaria still does not take any action against senior political figures, controls these financial flows over the years, but the European Commission itself confirmed to “Capital” some time ago that the country has received notification of the supremacy mechanism. the law, which means it is under surveillance.