On Thursday, the European Commission signed a Partnership Agreement with Bulgaria for the new EU programming period 2014-2020. Under the agreement this country is set to receive the total of 16 billion euro, or close to 10 billion from the European structural funds, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund. And added to the money from the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived, for direct payments, to money under the mechanism of cohesion with Europe and in line with European territorial cooperation, the total amount of 16 billion euro in gratuitous aid will be invested in the Bulgarian economy until 2020.

„This is a clear signal for Europe’s commitment to Bulgaria”, caretaker Deputy PM for European Funds Management Iliyana Tsanova said on Friday during the official presentation of the new agreement. She added that this would put reforms on Bulgaria’s agenda and would give them a chance to take place, because they could no longer be delayed.

The Partnership Agreement’s official signature is due at the end of this month. Financing under it is distributed among nine programmes. Of them seven are operational programmes and the amount earmarked for them stands at more than 7.4 billion euro. There are further amounts for two other programmes – the Rural Development and the Maritime and Fisheries ones with 2.3 billion euro and 88 million euro allotted to them respectively.

Current estimates suggest that in case the entire funding planned for Bulgaria is absorbed 100 percent, the gross domestic product is set to grow by 8.7 percent by 2020., private investments will grow by more than 43 percent, public ones by 32 percent, while the average salary will be 32 percent up, Deputy PM Iliyana Tsanova said on Friday. She however sees a challenge for Bulgaria in the efficient absorption of European funding. Given the slump in foreign investments resulting from the crisis, this amount of 16 billion euro is the single secure source of major investments in this country. This money is going to be invested in the infrastructures of villages and towns, in agriculture, employment, education, economy and ecology and for the sake of a better quality of life and better incomes of Bulgarians.