Bulgarian municipalities do not have the administrative capacity to prepare their projects to apply for Euro funds financing, Deputy PM Emel Etem said on Saturday.
Etem attended the forum "Preparing the local authorities for absorbing EU structural funds". The forum is organized by the ethnic Turkish party Movements for Rights and Freedoms.
In the next eight years Bulgaria will dispose of EUR 11 B from structural funds, EUR 4 B of which will be allocated for local authorities. This money is not sure to come to Bulgaria, unless the country prepares well enough its projects, Etem said.
That is the aim of the forum held in the seaside city of Burgas - to inform and teach local authorities how to benefit from the Euro funds.
Bulgarian municipalities must be ready with three projects each by the end of 2007 for the operative programs of the European Union.