Bulgaria's Minister of Environment and Waters, Nona Karadzhova, reiterated Monday accusations the former cabinet concealed official EU correspondence.

Karadzhova further rejected as untrue statements of former Environment Minister, Dzhevdet Chakarov, who claims all information and letters received from Brussels were timely published on the Ministry's website.

On Sunday, Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, accused the previous Three-Party Coalition government of purposely concealing letters from the European Commission warning about violations in the EU “Environment” program.

The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) is firmly denying all accusations, insisting the cabinet had responded to all letters.

On Monday, the current Environment Minister confirmed Bulgaria faces the danger of losing a significant amount of EU funds, estimated at EUR 400 M, for environmental projects. The exact amount depends on the EC decision to grant an extension of their deadlines.

Karadzhova further accused Chakarov of wrongly stating that the EC asked for audits only of the environmental projects, saying the request was made for all ISPA ones.

Because the former cabinet swept letters under the rug, the new leadership of the Environment Ministry had conducted an analysis of all projects without knowing that some have already been corrected while others were halted.

Karadzhova further informed that a letter from the EC to Bulgaria's Environment and Finance Ministries, announcing the looming loss of EUR 1,8 B if Bulgaria does not provide a report about its projects by the end of January, 2010, was concealed. The EC is still expecting a reply, the Minister said.

Karadzhova, however, explained that her staff had undertaken the necessary measures to improve and simplify the procedure for the projects where new finance and technology parameters, and shorter deadlines were established, and new experts hired. The letter, listing the new, concrete steps, is been sent to Brussels on Monday.