The money for energy efficiency to be kept in a single State fund

"The establishment of a State fund that will integrate all financial resources for energy efficiency programmes is currently underway," Minister of EU Funds Management Tomislav Donchev said yesterday, quoted by BTA. He attended an international workshop in Varna, organised within the framework of a Bulgarian-Norwegian partnership project in energy efficiency and renewable energy sources which is aimed at reducing harmful emissions in the public sector of the Black Sea municipalities.

According to Donchev, changes in the basic document, regulating the distribution of EU funds, will be discussed during the next meeting of the Council of Ministers. "A model for national housing policy needs to be developed, encouraging people to refurbish their buildings in order to save energy. This can be done by changing fees and taxes. But this cannot be achieved without the aid of the banking sector and access to cheap credits," commented the minister.

In 2010, a total of BGN 1 bn was paid under operational programmes alone. Added to the ISPA, Schengen and the Programme for Rural Development funds, the total amount of EU funds exceeded BGN 2 bn.

"About 11% of the earmarked EU funds, or BGN 1.7 bn, have been absorbed by Bulgaria," said Tomislav Donchev, refuting the allegations of BSP (Bulgarian Socialist Party) that only 6% of these funds had been absorbed by December 2010. According to him, it is high time that some people learned their lesson and began to distinguish between certificates and payments. The Minister explained that there was a big difference between the money paid here in Bulgaria and the money to be reimbursed by the European Commission, for which applications had been submitted. Sometimes it takes eight months to reimburse the money.

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