In an one-hour lecture, Yuliana Nikolova, Secretary of the Council on management of EU funds, tried to aswer the questions "Do we manage to mature during our membership?', "Which money are blocked and which are not?", "How to get back the disappointed?"
The capacity of Hall 1 of Sofia University was insufficient to manage the students who wanted to attend the discussion on the EU Structural Funds. A special guest was the Head for the Unit for Bulgaria Mr. Renaldo Mandmets.
One of the symptoms that Bulgaria has not yet matured in its policy as a member of the EU is that it often reacts as if EC was a mentor and not a partner, notes Mrs. Nikolova. She also pointed out that the call for activity of the Bulgarian institutions and society "We decide!" is perhaps the most difficult part of the membership.
The main goal when using the EU funding is to measure the risk for each programme, with more control for the projects at higher risk. Mrs Nikolova also thinks that we need to have more trust in the institutions through more public control. She said that the question of why people are not interested in applying is of great importance.
Mrs Nikolova commented on the media information that Bulgaria will have to return 20 bln EUR as the results of the project for the land register were not approved. She mentioned that Italy had been in the same position.
The question "How to return the disappointed" was answered by revealing the genesis of the problem and suggesting solutions: simplifying the procedure and unifying the forms.