“Nothing in the report comes as a surprise to me or my colleagues but politically, it is an attempt to find grounds for opposition,” said Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev in an interview for the Bulgarian National Radio, commenting on the report of the European Anti-Fraud Office OLAF. In his words, the report is being used to foment political hysteria.

“It is difficult to make up a list of countries with the biggest concentration of instances of suspected fraud, there can be no such list because the speculations now are based on the number of cases cited – and that is not indicative of how corrupt a given country is. For Bulgaria their number is 34 – as many as for Germany,” Tomislav Donchev added commenting on the allegations that Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary were in the top three of countries suspected of fraud involving EU funds. “There is nothing for Bulgaria to worry about in the report of the European Court of Auditors either, despite the usual critical tone.”

“If the European Commission has any criticism of the work of the country in question or the European funds administration, it first sends a warning letter, then blocks payments and only then does it freeze funds permanently. Bulgaria has not faced such a procedure since 2013,” Tomislav Donchev said.

“After the financial and debt crisis, the consumer EU funds model that ruled for decades is no longer the same,” the Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister said and added that now the focus is more on the effect of each investment or what the return on each euro invested will be.