The Coalition for Sustainable Usage of EU Funds was initiated in 2005 by environmental NGOs monitoring the processes of the usage of EU pre-accession funds (ISPA, PHARE, SAPARD) and observation of the environmental legislation. The idea is to include and apply the principles of sustainable development and integrate environmental issues in the other economic sectors through NGO participation in the development of Operational programmes and the National Development Plan 2007-2013 and follow-up monitoring of their implementation. Since the end of 2005, the coalition has started developing its informal network structures based on the Planning regions in the country. At the beginning of 2008, the Coalition comprised 25 organizations and covered two Planning regions.
In 2008 Bulgaria was constantly criticized by the EC for serious violations of the procedures for usage of EU funds. Some of the criticisms towards the Bulgarian administration include corruption, lack of transparency, low administrative capacity, non-compliance with Bulgarian legislation and European Directives. At the same time, the state gave up the development of a planned intermediate evaluation of the disbursement of EU funds in 2010. All these observations were discussed during the national meeting of the coalition in May 2008 and a decision was taken to work for the achievement of the following results by the end of 2010:
- Covering the whole country (6 Planning regions) with teams working on the regional level and interacting with the other regional and national teams.
- Development of expertise and tools for quality monitoring of activities on programme and project implementation.
- Monitoring of projects with expected negative environmental impact (in contradiction with the principles of sustainable development).
- Development of an e-base for better interaction and information exchange between the WatchDog teams, as well as promotion of their activity, and its results.
- Development of an independent report evaluating the progress of implementation of the Operational programmes, to be presented to the institutions in Bulgaria and Brussels in 2010 when Bulgaria will have reached the middle of the 2007-2013 fiscal period.
The main objective of the project was to develop capacity in Bulgarian NGOs to become an equal partner of the national and local government and the European Commission in the process of usage of the EU funds in Bulgaria.
In order to achieve this, two main tasks were implemented: Development of the NGO capacity for implementing effective citizen monitoring on EU Funds usage and implementation of effective monitoring, analysis and evaluation of ongoing disbursement of EU funds during project implementation.
A developed network of WatchDog organizations trained in monitoring, analysis and implementation of advocacy campaigns in 5 of the six planning regions in Bulgaria. Raised general interest among NGOs towards the opportunities for participation not only in the usage processes, but also in the monitoring and analysis of EU funds. Functioning electronic database, which generates problematic cases of EU funds disbursement. Development of a progress report on the implementation of EU-funded programmes and projects by 2010, dissemination among stakeholders and institutions and organizations involved in the management and usage of EU funds. Sharing of the analyses, assessments and case studies of EU funds usage in Bulgaria with regional, national and European institutions. Presentation and adoption of the established observations and conclusions by different services in Brussels involved with EU funds management.
Contact Information
Illiyan Ivanov Illiev, Chair of the Board of Directors
P.B.79, Varna 9010, Bulgaria
Tel./Fax: ++359 52 306 423
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