The results from the national information campaign "Be active" were presented at the concluding press conference today, 3 July 2007. The conclusions from the sociological survey of MBMD conducted among beneficiaries and journalists in the period May-June 2007 across the country show that the campaign of the Ministry of Finance has achieved high results and was indispensable for the potential beneficiaries of the European Structural and Cohesion Funds. Minister of Finance Plamen Oresharski and the representatives of MoF partners in the campaign Sasha Bezuhanova - CEIBG, Kamen Kolev - BCC, and Blenika Djelepova - CED, shared their direct impressions of the seminars held in the regions of planning. Minister Oresharski said that the preliminary expectations of the campaign usefulness had justified but there was still much work to be done which was confirmed by the experience of the old EU Member States. „The government achieved great progress in regard to the period of implementation of projects in the first two years. From 2007 to 2009 the projects need to be closed for a period of 3 years (the so-called N+3 rule)", reminded the Minister of Finance. He pointed out that businesses, local authorities, institutions and non-governmental organizations needed to know well those conditions in order to attain the maximum benefit therefrom. „As we have many times stated during the campaign the most important prerequisite for the effective absorption of the European funds is the pro-active position of beneficiaries. The European money will be allocated to well-prepared applicants", pointed out Minister Oresharski.
The purpose of "Be active" was to familiarize the potential beneficiaries with the benefit, essence and mechanisms of applying with projects for resources from the European Funds amounting to almost EUR 7 billion which our country has the opportunity to absorb in the period 2007-2013. Through the National Strategic Reference Framework of Bulgaria, which is the 11th one approved by the European Commission, our country has access to those approximately EUR 7 billion from the EU and to more than EUR 1,128 billion national co-financing. In the period from 2007 to 2015 Bulgaria has the opportunity to absorb the resources from the European Structural and Cohesion Funds and the projects to be closed in the same timeframe.
The initiative of the Ministry of Finance was supported by 53 leading electronic and print national and regional media. In order to reach the widest possible audience the campaign used various communication channels - television, radio, print media, online media, information materials which were disseminated during the seminars within the campaign.
According to the sociological survey conducted before the start of the information campaign "Be active" the groups of beneficiaries almost unanimously stated that they preferred to apply only in a number of areas - "Agriculture", "Regional development" and "Education". In June the individual groups showed higher interest in a greater number of sectors. Businesses identified as priority areas also "Regional development" and "Industry", the non-governmental organizations - "Social activities" and "Ecology", and local authorities showed preferrence in "Regional development" and "Ecology". After the end of the campaign 69% of the representatives of businesses stated their intention to apply for the European funds by developing their own projects, while at its start that percent was as low as 39%.
Beneficiaries preferred most the Operational Program „Human Resources Development" (57%). It is followed by „Regional Development" (45%), „Competitiveness" (41%), „Environment" (33%), „Technical Assistance" (32%) and „Transport" (10%). One of the main conclusions is that beneficiaries are willing to take part in more trainings and seminars on the European Funds.
Almost 2,500 potential beneficiaries have attended the seminars organized within the campaign "Be active". They are representatives of the various groups of recipients of European funds - non-governmental organizations, local authorities, small and medium businesses, large enterprises, public institutions and media. A total of 21 seminars and national meetings were held in the period March - June 2007. Prime Minister of Republic of Bulgaria Sergei Stanishev and the line Ministers of the seven Operational Programs - „Transport", „Environment", „Human Resources Development", „Development of the Competitiveness of the Bulgarian Economy", „Administrative Capacity", „Regional Development" and „Technical Assistance", took an active part in the seminars held in the administrative regional centers. More than 20 experts from the Managing Authorities of the relevant programs participated in the seminars in order to provide more detailed information.
Source: Ministry of Finance
