EC suspends Bulgarian Regional Development Program payments

The European Commission has temporarily suspended payments to Bulgaria for the Regional Development Program, the Bulgarian newswire Novinite reported June 4.

“Payments will be suspended until Bulgaria solves the problems,” said Shirin Wheeler, a spokesperson of the European Commissioner for Regional Policy Johannes Hahn, as cited by the newswire. “The letter from the EC, notifying the Bulgarian authorities on this, has been sent on Tuesday June 3.”

The suspended payments come up to BGN 640 mln and cover urban development and tourism programs. The reason behind suspension of the payments were problems with funds’ management and control, which were established by the EC audit.

According to government sources cited by the newswire, the problems, which Wheeler referred to, were mainly connected with public procurement tenders in the municipalities of Burgas and Asenovgrad, the University for Architecture, Construction and Geodesics and the purchases of fire engines by the Bulgarian Interior Ministry. All projects were conducted between 2010 and 2013.

Update: The EC provides more details on the infringement procedures.