Fri, Feb 10 2012

Pre-accession deal signed

Thu, Jan 23 2003 13:00 CET 192 Views
Pre-accession deal signed

FINANCE Minister Milen Velchev and Dimitris Kourkoulas, head of the delegation of the European Commission, have signed memorandums under the ISPA EU pre-accession programme for projects worth a total of 240 million euro.

Six of the financial agreements are in the environment sector and one in transport.

By signing the seven memorandums for a term of three years, the Government guaranteed the use of 75 per cent of the allocation for Bulgaria for the whole duration of the programme from 2000 to 2006, Velchev said after the signing on Tuesday.

According to Kourkoulas, this was a guarantee that the country was and would be capable of using the EU-extended funds.

In his view the financing also had political implications, showing that the Copenhagen decisions were not a mere diplomatic courtesy.

Velchev said the new projects, approved under ISPA, were almost ready to be launched and this would contribute to their timely and efficient implementation and bringing the transport and environment sectors in line with European requirements.

He hoped that upon the accession of the first wave of applicant-countries to the EU, there would be additional funds for Bulgaria.

The Finance Ministry was ready with new projects in the field of transport, and those in the area of the environment were being drafted, he said.

One of the most important conditions of the ISPA programme was to keep the balance between the environment and transport sectors.

Compared to previous years, Bulgaria was close to this balance, with 62 per cent of transport and 38 per cent of environmental projects.

The signed financial memorandums in the environment sector relate to the construction of waste water treatment plants in the Meden Rudnik neighbourhood in Bourgas. The other three projects are also related to the construction of water treatment plants, in Montana, Sevlievo and Popovo.

The financial memorandum signed in the transport section relates to the construction of a section of the Lyulin highway connecting Sofia and Pernik, to assist the development of European transport corridors.



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