10.01.2013

With regard to a press release of the European Commission concerning a statement of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Simeon Djankov regarding the reimbursement of funds by the Commission and the possibility to pay Christmas allowances to pensions the Ministry of Finance states that there is dependence between the payment of the latter in Bulgaria and the reimbursement of funds under the EU Cohesion and the Structural Funds.

For European programmes advance payments are made from the fiscal reserve. In the budget this is reflected as deficit on a cash basis until the moment the final payments by Brussels are made. "This indicator under the 2012 State Budget Law should have been BGN 1.1 billion and if Brussels had not made the final payments by the end of year 2012 the deficit would have exceeded the deficit provided for in the Law. Payments to the amount of around BGN 800 million were expected", said Minister of Finance Simeon Djankov.

"In order to maintain the fiscal framework as it is under the Law we had to insure ourselves against and to envisage the possibility that the money might be transferred in 2013", the Minister further commented.