60% of fraud cases with EU funds in Bulgaria were terminated or rejected

60% of the fraud cases with European funding subject to check in Bulgaria were rejected or terminated by the prosecutor's office, a report by the European Court of Auditors on the fight against fraud with funds from the European Cohesion spending over the past five years says. Apart from Bulgaria, European auditors have also carried out checks in France, Hungary, Greece, Latvia, Romania and Spain.

Although there has been progress in recent years, EU Member States are still not doing well in the fight against fraud in Cohesion spending, the most recent report by the European Court of Auditors shows. The countries themselves, including Bulgaria, believe that the measures they are implementing to combat fraud with EU funds are good enough. However, according to the European auditors, these conclusions are "too optimistic".

The report also says that the authorities that control the spending of EU funds in the country did not assess the risks of fraud well, in some cases they defined them as low and did not start checks at all.

The prosecutor's office has rejected or terminated 60% of the investigated cases. For several years, the European Commission has launched a project to implement the so-called integrity pacts - an agreement that the procurement authority concludes with economic operators bidding for the contract. They undertake to refrain from corrupt practices and ensure transparency. According to the Court of Auditors' report, these pacts show positive results in some countries, but Bulgaria is not mentioned among them.