Bulgaria's National Agriculture Fund has renewed SAPARD payments from the budget, Director of the Fund, Atanas Kanchev, said. Photo by Yuliana Nikolova (Sofia Photo Agency)
Bulgaria's National Agriculture Fund has renewed payments for approved SAPARD projects, using money from the national budget, officials reported Tuesday.
About BGN 200 M will be paid from the budget to compensate the blocked funds under the program.
It is still unknown whether the EC is later to pay the money to Bulgaria, Director of the Fund, Atanas Kanchev, said.
"I do not dare being an optimist. What is more important to me is to manage to prolong the term of the program with one more year." Mr Kanchev told reporters.
In July the EC issued highly critical monitoring report on Bulgaria, revealing violations and embezzlement of EU money, which led to blocking a total of over EUR 825 M of pre-accession programs.