Deputy Prime Minister Meglena Plougchieva has ordered the creation of a working group to evaluate the budgets of projects applying for funding under the European Union's operational programme Environment, the Cabinet said in a statement.

The European Commission had reviewed approved projects for the water sector and found problems with some of the budgets.

According to the EC, there were two groups of budgets. The first was projects with an average value of the project was estimated at around 3000 euro per capita. This group included one project of 7000 euro invested per capita.

The second group was projects where the average value of investments was estimated at around 370 euro per capita, well below the European Union average of 500 euro per capita. According to the EC, it was not clear what caused the differences. One possibility was a lack of accurate data, causing unrealistic budgets, the EC said.

The EC had requested the projects to be analysed at national level and for budgets to be corrected, the government media statement said.

The EC had warned it would take appropriate action if this would not happen, warning that this would have negative consequences on the OP Environment and investments in the sector.

The working group that is to examine approved projects consists of representatives of the Ministry of Environment and Water Affairs, the Regional Development Ministry, as well as representatives of the Cabinet, Finance Ministry and independent outside experts.

The working group was expected to propose criteria for sustained investments in the sector.