Brussels' blow on Bulgaria might be twice as heavier than what the public learned during the past week, according to dariknews.bg citing the Bulgarian daily newspaper "Sega" ("Now").

Tuesday Bulgaria has been notified that EUR 1,6 B from one of the seven operational programs "Transportation" would also be put on hold, according to the newspaper's report.

This amount is on top of the EUR 825 M from the ISPA, PHARE and SAPARD funds that have already been blocked. Consequently, the total amount of Bulgaria's losses due to corruption and organized crime could surpass the expected budget surplus of EUR 2,5 B.

According to "Sega", on July 22, 2008 Finance Minister Plamen Oresharski has received a letter from the Dirk Ahner, Chief Director of the European Commission's General Directorate "Regional Policy" informing Oresharski that due to signals about misappropriations in the Republican Road Infrastructure Fund (RRIF), the EC was going to block financing for Bulgaria from the operational "Transportation" program.

The program receives resources form the Cohesion Fund of the EC destined mainly for transportation and the environment in under-developed regions. According to European standards Bulgaria now has six such regions. The above-mentioned fund is an extension of the ISPA program, which has been blocked since January 24, 2008 due to conflict of interests at the Fund involving its former Executive Director and his younger brother's successful bids for public contracts and after the arrest of two employees who were caught while taking a bribe.

So far no one from the Cabinet has publicly admitted that a new blow had come from Brussels. The "Sega" newspaper, however, states that they have a copy of Ahner's letter, which was also sent to Regional Minister Asen Gagauzov and Transportation Minister Petar Mutafchiev.

"Sega" cites Dirk Ahner as saying in the letter: "The RRIF is the only beneficiary of the entire priority operational "Transportation" program for the period of 2007 - 2013, with a budget of over EUR 1 B. I am certain that you would agree that it would be unacceptable to continue payments in the presence of even the slightest doubt in the RRIF integrity, while at the same time we must consider the gravity of the violations discovered in connection to current Cohesion fund's projects as well as the misappropriations and conflict of interest occurrences."

Ahner further reminds that he had recommended blocking of the resources from the Cohesion Fund for two current projects, part of the ISPA program: the "Liyulin" highway from the Daskalovo road junction to Sofia and technical assistance for the preparation of road projects for the common European roads to pass through Bulgaria.

The ISPA failure in Bulgaria has been a warning signal triggering the blocking of the money from the Cohesion Fund for the operational "Transportation" program.

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