Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications

Work on the absorption of the EU funds, joint cooperation and the experience gathered topped the agenda of a working meeting held with the participation of Minister of Transport, Information Technologies and Communications Ivailo Moskovski, EU Funds Management Minister Tomislav Donchev and Romanian European Affairs Minister Leonard Orban.

According to the Romanian Minister, for some years now Bulgaria has been highly successful with the infrastructure projects implemented under OP Transport. “The good results are based on our very hard efforts,” Minister Ivailo Moskovski said. Minister Tomislav Donchev said that this is the main reason for the tangible increase of absorbed funds. In 2009 the paid out funds under OP Transport were below 1%, while today they exceed 30%.

“These funds are used to upgrade hundreds of kilometres of railway lines, construct motorways, first-class roads, extend the Sofia Underground and invest in ports,” Minister Ivailo Moskovski said. He underscored that problems are settled mostly using own capacity. “The project management teams operate within the concrete beneficiary and in this way the funds allocated for the specific activity are used by the people having drafted the project, which enhances their commitment,” Moskovski explained.

Leonard Orban familiarized his Bulgarian hosts with some of the problems, which they encounter while handling European projects. “Currently, Romania has some 115 priority projects but lacks resources to implement all of them simultaneously,” said he. Moskovski told him that the Bulgarian practice is to give priority to those which are most advanced. "This approach has produced very good results in the past three years and we have already contracted over 92% of the programme's budget," he added.

Minister Orban said that his country also has problems with the contractor-companies, which make delays and try to increase the price of the projects. The Bulgarian ministers were categorical that these problems can be resolved only with more on-spot checks and strong commitment at the highest level quoting as an example to this end the Bulgarian Prime Minister.