The third of a series of reports commissioned by UNDP and prepared with the participation of national and international
experts and partner organizations to assess - on the eve of Bulgaria’s accession to the European Union - the national
capacities for the use of the EU Structural and Cohesion Funds (SCFs).
The third of a series of reports commissioned by UNDP and prepared with the participation of national and international experts and partner organizations to assess - on the eve of Bulgaria’s accession to the European Union - the national capacities for the use of the EU Structural and Cohesion Funds (SCFs).
The report represents an updated version of an earlier survey - two years ago, in 2004, UNDP together with the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works and with the participation of the National Association of Municipalities in the Republic of Bulgaria released the first ever national assessment of municipal and district capacities to absorb the EU Structural funds and Cohesion Fund.
The present updated Assessment is conducted jointly with the same partners and is building on interviews with Bulgarian municipalities and district administrations which took place in April and May of 2006. The new survey has contributed both in terms of updating the assessment results to the present situation and of applying an improved methodology. The results announce a progress in capacity building, but also note certain gaps exist that couldn`t be filled but with immediate special efforts by many partners. If these prove to be succeful and Bulgaria starts to make a good use of the EU funds, the experts recommend subsequent introduction of new policies to support the positive effect of the use of the Funds.
