Networks of conflicts of interest in the overall management of EU funds made it impossible for the Bulgarian Government to clear up the system, Hungarian Antonio De Blasio, a member of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats group in the European Parliament, said on November 6 2008.

In a statement on the party's website epp-ed.eu, De Blasio, who is also the European Parliament's rapporteur on the fight against fraud, said that the Bulgarian Government had not been capable of setting up an effective, reliable and transparent management and financial control structure.

"Bulgaria as a country should not be blamed for this. It is the current Bulgarian Government, led by the Bulgarian Socialist Party, which has not been able to end illegal actions concerning EU funds. Recent cases, monitoring and on-the-spot (audit) checks show that not much progress has been made since the country's EU accession.

"Firstly, there is a lack of knowledge about EU rules and procedures and the basic management know-how is very weak. Also, administrative officials are low paid so bribing is a common practice and a real judiciary reform, which would for example enable immediate recoveries, is still pending. Finally, prevention policy is missing and the national audit authority is weak and its independence is questionable", De Blasio stated.

In early October 2008, De Blasio participated in a fact-finding mission by the European Parliament's budgetary control committee to some of the co-funded project sites in Bulgaria. The aim of the visit was to get an insight into the situation and try to find ways to resolve problems.

While acknowledging the effort of the organisers, who had presented the EU projects honestly, Antonio De Blasio MEP said that in the following cases, neither the Commission, nor the national authorities had prepared and carefully examined the projects:

The waste-water treatment plant in Balchik (ISPA) will not function for maybe another year because the sewage system will be finished later;

Darko AD ice-cream company in Sofia (SAPARD) was sold to a third party after the beneficiary renovated and equipped the company with EU funds;

Construction of the Lyulin motorway, Sofia Ring Road, Daskalovo Road junction (ISPA) raised the question of bribery of the Bulgarian Government by the contractor.

"The Bulgarian people should know that it is their Socialist Government that is to blame for the suspension of EU funds due to their lack of efforts to significantly decrease the number of suspicions and irregular cases", De Blasio said.