The AFKOS unit (the council coordination the combating of frauds with EU money), which has so far been part of Bulgaria's Interior Ministry, will be placed under the direct control of the newly appointed Deputy Prime Minister Meglena Plugchieva.

The decision was made by the Council of the governing three-way coalition, which is holding a two-day meeting on Saturday and Sunday in the Katarino Complex in Southwest Bulgaria.

The Council started its meeting with a discussion of the present situation of the absorption of EU funds in Bulgaria with the Finance Minister Plamen Oresharski and the Meglena Plugchieva presenting their reports on the issue.

Plugchieva herself announced that the Coalition Council has also decided to set up a unit for assisting the beneficiaries of the EU funds in order to enable better coordination, communication, and control for their absorption.

According to the new Deputy PM, many institutions of the Bulgarian state administration would be punished over certain unfair practices in their communication with Brussels.

"The letters that our administration sends to the EU institutions are a formality, they simulate activities, whereas we need real results. It is about time the municipal administrations learn how write projects with which to apply for EU funding", Plugchieva said.

In her words, the state administration must be stimulated to work better in the field of EU funding with pay increases as there was currently a lack of interest on part of younger experts to join the state institutions.

To tackle this issue, Plugchieva has arranged the forming of a new working group of the Finance Ministry and the Ministry of State Administration. She added many mid-level institutions did not comply with the recommendations from Brussels, and that she had requested that they be sanctioned, but did not specify which exactly she was referring to.

Plugchieva also announced that the EC Directorate-General on Agriculture was going to inspect they absorption of SAPARD program funds in Bulgaria. Another inspection by Olaf was going to take place in June, and additional inspections of the PHARE program were to take place after that.

Bulgaria's former ambassador to Germany Meglena Plugchieva was appointed a special Deputy Prime Minister without portfolio in late April as PM Stanishev made staff changes in his cabinet in an attempt to address criticisms about the inefficient absorption of EU funds.

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