"Iron Megi": Bulgaria's EUR 7 B from EU Structure Funds Are Not at Risk

Politics » BULGARIA IN EU | July 19, 2008, Saturday // 00:00
???Iron Megi???: Bulgaria??™s EUR 7 B from EU Structure Funds Not at Risk: "Iron Megi": Bulgaria's EUR 7 B from EU Structure Funds Are Not at Risk Bulgaria's Deputy PM Plugchieva, aka "Iron Megi", explained Friday night the country's structure funds from the EU were not threatened by sanctions. Photo by Nadya Kotseva (Sofia Photo Agency)

Bulgaria's Deputy Prime Minister Meglena Plugchieva, also known as the "Iron Megi", said Friday night in Brussels that the EUR 7 B the country was supposed to receive from the EU before 2013 were presently not threatened by sanctions, the Bulgarian National Television reported.

Plugchieva, who was appointed a month and a half ago to monitor the absorption of EU funds, pointed out that the absorption of the structure funds of EUR 7 B was just about to start, and they were not threatened by the same sanctions currently faced by the pre-accession programs for Bulgaria.

The Deputy PM did say, however, that part of the pre-accession funds especially under the PHARE Program might really be lost because there was not much time to absorb them.

With respect to the SAPARD Program funds, Plugchieva said Bulgaria was going to request that their absorption be extended into 2009 as it was currently set to expire at the end of 2008.

She declined to comment on the media publications about the upcoming EU Report on Bulgaria because it had not been published yet.

Plugchieva also said the reports that some EU member states wanted further sanctions for Bulgaria such as leaving it out of the Schengen Area and the Eurozone were exaggerated, and that she did not see problems in those respective areas.

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