Report: Wasted Time, a Wasted Opportunity (EU funds for Bulgaria)

http://www.community-living.info/documents/ECCL-StructuralFundsReport-final-WEB.pdf page 3: This report was written by Camilla Parker, with input from Ines Bulic´. The European Coalition for Community Living (ECCL) and the authors would like to thank the following organisations and individuals for their helpful comments on various parts of the report and for providing information about the use of Structural Funds in their countries: Elena Iorga and Loredana Ercus¸ from the Institute for Public Policy, Laila Onu and Nicoleta Foica from the Pentru Voi Foundation and Mariela Neagu, an expert on social assistance, for providing information on Romania and commenting on several drafts of the report; Zsolt Bugarszki, Orsolya Eszik and István Sziklai and all members of the Soteria–ELTE research team, for providing information on Hungary and commenting on several drafts of the report. page 26: An example of collaboration: Bulgaria15 A current initiative in Bulgaria provides an example of how the European Commission can facilitate collaboration across different agencies for the development of plans to establish community-based services and to consider how Structural Funds can best be used to implement these plans. In early 2009, the European Commission launched a collaborative exercise with the Bulgarian Government. This involved the European Commission’s Directorate General for Regional Policy and Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities taking an active role in the implementation of Bulgaria’s Operational Programme for Regional Development (OPRD) (2007–2013). The European Commission decided to intervene following the poor response of the agencies responsible for managing long stay institutions for children to a call for proposals for the renovation of the social infrastructure. The Commission wanted to ensure that the available funding was used to address the situation of children in long stay institutions in the light of a BBC documentary that had depicted the appalling conditions, poor quality of care and extreme neglect of children with disabilities in one of these institutions.16 This OPRD covers a range of areas including investments into social infrastructure, with a budget of 1.6 billion EUR. The European Commission and the Bulgarian Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works agreed that approximately 20 million EUR from the OPRD would be allocated to investments into alternative services for children currently living in residential institutions due to poverty, disability or lack of access to other services. It was also agreed that additional funding would be allocated from the European Social Fund (ESF) for staff training. The Commission Directorates of Regional Policy and of Employment had worked together, in consultation with civil society representatives, to draft an Action Plan which proposed that the Structural Funds (European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and ESF) should be invested to support the process of de-institutionalisation in Bulgaria. This allowed investments to be made in both the infrastructure (funded under the ERDF) and in the training of staff who will work in the newly established services (funded under the ESF). In addition, the European Commission and the Bulgarian authorities convened a workshop to discuss the practicalities and challenges in the implementation of the Action Plan and share information on best practice in developing community-based services from other countries. Participants included European and international civil society representatives. Following the workshop an inter-ministerial working group was established to assist the Managing Authority17 in the planning and implementation of the project.

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