The Managing Authority (MA) of the Environment Programme 2021-2027 held the Tenth Meeting of the Monitoring Committee (MC). The forum was hosted by the Minister of Environment and Water and the Head of the MA of the programme Manol Genov.

“I hope to elevate the communication between beneficiaries and the Managing Authority to an even higher level. Our goal is to apply flexible measures when necessary and thus achieve higher activity and a higher percentage of utilization of the funds provided under the Environment Programme,” said Minister Genov in an address to the members of the Committee.

Proposed amendments to the Indicative Annual Work Programme (IAWP) under the priorities “Water”, “Biodiversity”, and “Climate Risk and Change” were adopted within the framework of the working forum. The updated information is related to the refinement of eligible activities and beneficiaries, and to changes in the deadlines for announcing the procedures and submitting project proposals.

The members of the MC approved methodologies and criteria for evaluation under 3 procedures in the “Biodiversity” sector, which in various aspects are aimed at improving the nature conservation status of habitats, ensuring conditions for the protection of endangered species, and promoting good practices for the protection of nature and biodiversity. The total budget of the four procedures is over 91 million leva.

During the working meeting, MC members approved methodologies and criteria for evaluation under the procedure “Green measures in urban environment (5)” under Priority 5 “Air” with a budget of nearly 3.5 million leva. An eligible beneficiary is the municipality of Veliko Tarnovo, which falls within the scope of municipalities with impaired air quality. The project will build green infrastructure to reduce secondary dust in urban environments and provide irrigation systems for the newly built green areas.

During the forum, information was presented to the members of the MC regarding the progress in completing the OPE 2014-2020 and the current implementation of the Environment Program 2021-2027. In the programming period 2014-2020, 371 contracts were carried out with a total budget of 3.26 billion leva. Payments made to beneficiaries are 3.18 billion leva. Under the Environment Program 2021-2027, 112 projects worth nearly 2.4 billion leva are currently being implemented, which represents 66.4% of the program budget.