BULGARIA IS THE LEADING COUNTRY IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OG THE NEW PROGRAMMING PERIOD OF THE EEA AND NORWAY GRANTS
BULGARIA IS THE LEADING COUNTRY IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OG THE NEW PROGRAMMING PERIOD OF THE EEA AND NORWAY GRANTS
The old financial period is successfully closed, with an expected absorption rate of over 80% including the last payments
From the 27th to the 29th of November 2012, the Bulgarian National Focal Point for the EEA and Norway Grants hosted three events covering a wide range of experts involved in the implementation of the two financial instruments.
On the 27th of November, training for program operators on the topics of logical framework, performance as well as management and risk assessment was held at the Boyana Residence. The event was attended by 40 representatives from all Programme Operators as well as by representatives from the "Audit of EU Funds" Executive Agency and the "National Fund" Directorate at the Ministry of Finance. Moderators of training were Ms. Inger Stoll and Ms. Trine Eriksen from the Financial Mechanism Office. The workshop included not only presentations on practical elements like establishing a good logical relationship between programs and projects, statistical manual, programme monitoring and reporting, but also allowed the participants to take part in series of practical activities, including identification of assumptions and risks as well as to determine baseline, targets and indicators.
The next day was devoted to a Workshop for representatives of National Focal Points from the EEA & Norway Grants beneficiary countries. Participants from the respective units in Hungary, Greece, Romania and Bulgaria took part in sessions of discussions and presentations on the strategic report. The participants shared experiences from the past and expectations about future reports. They examined specific aspects of reporting and the challenges that each country could meet in the report.
The 29th of November was for the annual meetings aiming to report on the progress of both financial instruments - the final Annual Meetings on the EEA Financial Mechanism 2004-2009 and the Norwegian Cooperation Programme in Bulgaria 2004 - 2009 and the second annual meeting on the EEA Financial Mechanism and the NFM 2009 - 2014. Minister Tomislav Donchev co-chaired forum from the Bulgarian side together with from the Donor Countries - Mr. Steinar Hagen, Deputy Director General of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During the meetings, the Republic of Bulgaria presented the progress made under the two mechanisms as well as the priority activities for the upcoming year. The Republic of Bulgaria was praised for achieving an absorption was achieved by 75 %, with the (expected to be above 80% after the last payment) for the old financial period and for the approval of 8 programmes under the new one. Based on these successes, Bulgaria is among the leading countries of the progress in the implementation of the EEA Financial Mechanism and the NFM 2009-2014.
