Bulgaria and the EU - What EU Funds Will We Receive During the New Programming Period?

Northwestern Bulgaria is among the 10 most uncompetitive regions in the EU. This conclusion is not new, but it is now confirmed by a study by the European Commission, which answers the question which areas of the Old Continent are most attractive to businesses and citizens.

For more on this topic and on the issues of absorption of funds from Europe, see Victoria Boyadzhieva and her special interview for Business.bg with Angel Beremliyski from the Directorate-General for Regional Policy in the European Commission.

Mr Beremliyski, we are meeting at a very crucial moment when the budget negotiations for the next programming period are underway. Can you remind the viewers of Business.BG what are the finances earmarked for cohesion policy for Bulgaria for the current programming period 2014-2020 and what funds are to be distributed?

Bulgaria receives a lot of serious assistance from the European Union in general, and especially from the EU's cohesion policy. For the current programming period (2014-2020) it is about 8 billion overall. In the next programming period an increase of this resource is envisaged, which is also a very important element, an important message to Bulgaria. Generally, for the future investment policies, in the next 10 years. This is an increase of around € 2 billion. That is, the total resource will reach € 10 billion.
At the same time, however, the Regional Competitiveness Index came out and the data show that in the last 3 years our regions have not developed much, which is still the weakest, poorest region in Bulgaria - Northwest. Your comment?

My observation is similar to yours that there are indicators in certain regions that...