Looks like the EU have given Bulgaria another chance for the Mafia to take another sweep of funds again. This is of course drawn from recent history so I need not say anything else on the matter.
Bulgaria signed Wednesday two agreements with Europe worth more than EUR200 million which will also improve the way it uses European Union structural funds available to the country by 2013.
A EUR200 million agreement with the European Investment Fund, an E.U. specialist unit, is aimed at facilitating access to finance for small- and medium-sized companies.
A second EUR33 million deal with the European Investment Bank will promote sustainable urban development.
At a time when funding for small companies has practically dried up, the EIF agreement was welcomed by Bulgaria's Economy and Energy Minister Petar Dimitrov and the fund's chief executive Richard Pelly.
Bulgaria joined the E.U. in 2007 as its poorest and most corruption-ridden newcomer.
Its failure to guarantee efficient and fraud-free distribution of European money prompted Brussels last year to freeze over EUR800 million to the country, EUR220 million of which have been definitively lost.
Some EUR11 billion in E.U. structural and cohesion funds available to Bulgaria between 2007 and 2013 could also be at risk if controls are not tightened up, experts have warned.
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