The European Commission has frozen EUR 50 M of PHARE program funds because of irregularities in the executive agencies, managing their absorption.
This was announced Thursday by Bulgaria's Deputy Finance Minister Dimitar Ivanovski. The Finance Ministry received on February 29 a letter from the EC regarding the freezing of the funds.
EUR 36 M of the EUR 50 M that are frozen are for programs managed by the PHARE Executive Agency of the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works.
The other EUR 14 M are from funds governed by the Central Financing and Negotiating Unit of the Ministry of Finance.
The Deputy Finance Minister Ivanovski explained that the annex of the letter from the head of the EC Enlargement Directorate Michael Lee contained the list of the specific projects for which the funds have been frozen.
Ivanovski also said that in the week between March 17 and March 21, a technical meeting would take place in the head office of the EC Enlargement Directorate in Brussels, at which the Bulgarian side was going to have the opportunity to present its position.