Bulgaria's prime minister Sergey Stanishev praised on Monday the progress made by the country in securing EU funding under operational programmes.

All of Bulgaria's seven programmes have received the European Commission's approval, with three of them already signed and the remaining four expected to follow suit shortly.

In that respect Bulgaria is ahead of even some of the old EU member states, Stanishev said.

"Bulgaria has passed the first test, but the hard work is just starting - now we he have to actually carry out those projects," said Socialist Stanishev at a meeting with the party's recently-elected mayors.

The country's municipalities are on track to end the year with a surplus of BGN 500 M, which they'll be able to invest, he added.

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