Bulgaria Finmin Unveils Plan for Mega-Fund Managing EU Financial Instruments

Bulgaria plans to set up a state-owned firm in charge of managing EUR 777 M of EU funds over the 2014-2020 programming period, Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov has said.

"After an in-depth internal discussion and together with the Managing Authorities of the Operational Programmes we chose the concept on the establishment of a Fund of Funds for joint management of the financial instruments in the new programming period," Goranov said during a meeting between the government and businesses on Tuesday.

The mega-fund will be an umbrella structure in charge of managing EU financial instruments othet nthan grants - turnover credits, guarantees and project financing.

By creating the Fund of Funds, the Bulgarian government plans to replace the European Investment Fund, a structure of the European Investment Bank (EIB), which currently is managing about BGN 500 M (EUR 250 M) under the EU's JEREMIE initiative, mediapool.bg commented in its coverage of the news.

JEREMIE (Joint European Resources for Micro to Medium Enterprises) is a joint initiative launched by the European Commission  and the EIB Group to improve access to finance for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the EU within the Structural Funds framework for the period 2007 - 2013.

According to Goranov, one of the advantages of the idea is the achievement of "economy of scale due to the fact that the financial instruments under the various OPs, targeted at one and the same category of beneficiaries, can be consolidated and reach the latter as a package".

Besides, in regard to the horizontal procedures related to financial instruments implementation, such as the development of an investment strategy, the legal procedures, audits, reporting and everything else...