European funds create heavy corruption climate, Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said.

Since the country has corruption problem, some consider that it would fail introducing transparent European funds utilisation procedures, Stanishev said during a conference, part of the Be Active initiative.

Stanishev said that the government will focus its efforts on achieving maximal transparency in EU funds utilisation and the procedures will be uploaded on the website of Finance Ministry.

Be Active initiative aims at informing people about opportunities for EU funds utilisation.

Stanishev said that he hoped that Bulgaria will receive European Commission (EC) approval on most of the operational programmes in the autumn of 2007.

He appealed for a higher participation activity in EU funding projects so that more contracts could be signed. In this way, more EU funds will enter the country to guarantee economic development, Stanishev said.