Instead of demanding political responsibility from minsters after the criticism in the European Commission (EC) report published on July 23, a new, centralised structure would be set up to deal with absorption of EU funding.

This was announced on July 26, at the end of the first day of an extraordinary meeting of the leadership of the ruling coalition in the Bulgarian resort of Bansko.

"The general assessment that the European Commission reports is objective and shows clear enough the difficulties that our country has in the process of meeting its real integration in the European Union," a statement posted on the Government website said.

In response to questions from journalists concerning political responsibility for the financial sanctions and criticism from the EC, Mladen Chervenyakov, member of Parliament (MP) for the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), was quoted by mediapool.bg as saying that a "thorough and responsible discussion" had taken place.

Bulgarian daily Dnevnik however, quoted unnamed participants in the meeting as saying that the question of personal responsibility was not discussed. This is not about responsibility, even less so about positions and the topic of changing ministers and deputy ministers has not been raised, Dnevnik quoted unnamed politicians as saying.

At a press conference on late Saturday afternoon, it was announced that Government and the coalition adopted as a guide the criticism and recommendations from the EC and that after a "thorough analysis" a set of measures to be taken until 2010 had been agreed upon, mediapool.bg said.

As an emergency measure, the minsters of the two ministries that were heaviest criticized in the report, Finance Minister Plamen Oresharski and Regional Development Minister Assen Gagauzov would personally observe and implement measures to restore the accreditation of agencies under their ministries for dealing with EU funds, mediapool.bg said.

Dnevnik quoted unnamed sources in the coalition as saying that the new structure would most likely be a new agency under the management of Deputy Prime Minister Meglena Plugchieva. It was less likely that an entirely new ministry would be set up, Dnevnik said.

A working group, headed by BSP MP Radoslav Ivanov, has been set up. The working group was expected to come up with a proposal for the new structure in early September 2008.

Plugchieva said that currently the administrative capacity of existing institutions did not meet requirements and that this created the risk that Bulgaria would not be able to absorb funding under the Operational Programs. To solve this problem, external experts would be invited for advice and to train public administration staff.

Plugchieva said that warning letters received from the EC concerning the Operative Programme Transport, in which the primary benificiary is the much criticised Road Infrastructure Fund, contain problems already identified and that measures to ensure efficiency under this programme had been taken. A decision had already been taken to restructure the fund, an external audit agency would be appointed and an external consultant from Germany was expected to arrive, Dnevnik said.

Once the new Road Infrastructure Fund has worked for two months, an external audit would be done. If the audit showed the effictiveness of measures put in place, there would be no problem with the utilisation of funds under this programme, Plugchieva said.