Bulgaria's Deputy Prime Minister Meglena Plugchieva announced Tuesday that over 80% of the citizens of the country were uninterested in any information about the programs and funding opportunities of the European Union.

Plugchieva, who is in charge of monitoring the absorption of EU funds, presented data from a public opinion poll of the MBMD Agency, which asked 1200 Bulgarian citizens including representatives of small and medium-sized firms, NGOs, and consultancies about their interest in EU programs.

According to the results of the poll, over 50% of the businessmen and officials are able to find immediately information about the EU programs they are interested. The majority of the average citizens, however, not only knows very little about them but also is almost completely uninterested.

The MBMD poll also found that the number of Bulgarian municipalities with projects prepared for EU funding increased from 40% to 50% of the total number, which is a 24% increase.

The representatives of the small and medium-sized enterprises, however, are discovered to be far behind in absorbing EU money.

During Plugchieva's Tuesday's briefing representatives of the Finance Ministry also presented the web sites with information about EU's seven operational programs for Bulgaria - www.eufunds.bg.

Bulgaria is supposed to absorb EUR 12 B from EU's operational programs by 2013. After the European Commission recently blocked EUR 825 M from the three pre-accession programs, however, the Bulgarian authorities will need to take wide-ranging measures to tackle the country's issues in this sphere.

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