European Commission
Bulgaria

The primary aim of the European Union policy for economic and social cohesion is to limit the differences in the economic and social development of the regions of Europe and to promote structural changes.

The EU Cohesion policy is carried out through a number of instruments the most important of which are the Structural funds and the Cohesion fund.

2000-2006

For the 2000-2006 period the following Structural funds are in place:

1. European fund for regional development (ERDF);

2. European social fund (ESF);

3. European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF);

4. Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance (FIFG).

The funds are focused on the implementation of three priority objectives:

Objective1 - Helping regions whose development is lagging behind to catch up - more than 2/3 of the appropriations of the Structural Funds (more than EUR 135 billion) are allocated to helping areas lagging behind in their development, where the gross domestic product (GDP) is below 75% of the Community average;

Objective2 - Supporting economic and social conversion in industrial, rural, urban or fisheries dependent areas facing structural difficulties - 11.5% of the funds are directed towards these regions;

Objective3 - Modernising systems of training and promoting employment. Measures financed by Objective 3 cover the whole Union except for the Objective 1 regions, where measures for training and employment are included in the catch-up programmes.

The funds allocated for structural measures are about 213 billion euro (or one third from the overall Community budget for 2000 – 2006. From these funds 18 billion euro are allocated to the Cohesion fund for support of measures for building of transport and environmental infrastructure in the member states with GDP lower than 90% of the EU average.

Principles

The European Cohesion policy and the implementation of the structural instruments are based on the following basic principles:

Partnership – Community action complement and support measures at the national level. The measures supported should result from close cooperation and consultations between the European commission and the member state. The central and regional authorities in the member state and the socio-economic partners should be actively involved in the process.

Coordination – the European commission and the member state ensure coordination and lack of duplication of financing available under the different financing instruments.

De-centralisation – in accordance with this principle competencies with regard to the implementation of the funds are transferred from the Commission to the member state;

Complementarity – EU funding should complement and not replace allocated national resources.