The European Economic Area Financial Mechanism was officially launched in Bulgaria

The European Economic Area (EEA) Financial Mechanism was officially launched in Bulgaria.
Over EUR 20 million in funding was made available on 23 January 2008 to Bulgarian NGOs, public and private sector bodies.

The priority areas of the grant scheme are:

Priority area 1: Protection of the environment, including the human environment, through, inter alia, reduction of pollution and promotion of renewable energy:

• Supporting biodiversity and nature reserves;
• Developing sustainable forest management;
• Protecting ground water, managing waste water, and reducing air pollution, including monitoring systems;
• Developing sustainable waste water collection and promoting recycling systems;
• Developing sustainable energy production, incl. renewable energy, geothermal energy, hydropower and energy efficiency.

Priority area 2: Human resource development through promotion of education and training, strengthening of administrative or public service capacities of local government or its institutions as well as the democratic processes, which support it:

• Increasing the competence and administrative capacity of central, regional and local authorities/municipalities, including the use of information technology;
• Developing cadastre through the establishment of a system as a basis for the Spatial Data Infrastructure;
• Promotion of the social dialogue.
  

Priority area 3: Health and childcare:

• Supporting children at risk;
• Rehabilitating buildings, modernisation of equipment and managerial systems;
• Implementing preventive measures to reduce drug and alcohol abuse and promote a healthy lifestyle;
• Preventing and improving treatment of communicable diseases (HIV/AIDS and TB).

Priority area 4: Conservation of European cultural heritage:

• Preservation and rehabilitation of cultural and historic heritage;
• Use of new technologies for improved management of archaeological, historic and religious collections.

Beneficiaries
Public and private actors as well as NGOs in Bulgaria.

Specific forms of grant assistance
In addition to the funding through the open call, the following specific forms of grant assistance have been approved:

• NGO Fund - it will support the strengthening of the non-governmental, non-profit organizations as an active partner in the public debate and the involvement of NGOs in the priority areas outlined above;
• Technical Assistance - the assistance will support measures relating to the implementation of the EEA Financial Mechanism, such as preparation of the implementation, evaluation of projects, financial flows and monitoring, costs related to meetings of the Monitoring Committee (including cost of working groups and experts), promotional and information activities, as well as audits, monitoring and spot checks;
• Fund for support of co-operation among schools/ scholarships - the assistance will support co-operation programmes for training courses, lecturers and experts of secondary, high schools and universities between the relevant institutions of Bulgaria and the EFTA States in the priority areas outlined above.
  

Co-financing requirements
The grant cannot exceed 60% of the total project cost, but there are two exceptions:

- up to 85% - for projects of the central, regional or local authorities;
- up to 90% - for projects under the NGO fund and the Schools/ scholarships fund.

Project evaluation
Management of the EU Funds Directorate at the Ministry of Finance will be the Bulgarian Focal Point under the grant mechanism. Upon receipt of the project proposal, the Focal Point makes a first evaluation of the submitted applications. After that it forwards prioritised proposals together with a reasoned opinion to the Financial Mechanism Office (FMO) in Brussels, which makes a thorough appraisal of each project proposal. To ensure compatibility with EU goals, the application is subsequently forwarded to the European Commission for screening.

Deadline for proposals
Project proposals can be submitted to the Ministry of Finance until 25 April 2008. More detailed information about the application procedure, the cofinancing requirements, as well as the application form is available on: www.eeagrants.bg, www.eeagrants.org and www.eufunds.bg.