The deputy prime minister responsible for the management of EU funds will chair a Council for
Coordination and Operational Monitoring of EU Funds, the government information service said. The government decided to set up the Council on Thursday to improve the coordination of the activities involved in the management of EU financing.

The Council will be chaired by the deputy prime minister responsible for the coordination of the planning, programming, management, monitoring and control of EU funds. The Council will deal with all coordination-related matters within the competence of more than one department, as well as with the coordination and management of the EU funds absorption systems in general.

It will coordinate the annual reports on the implementation of pre-accession and operational programs and other EU financial instruments; approve monthly progress reports on program implementation; and suggest measures to improve performance.

The Council's deputy chairpersons will be the deputy finance ministers responsible for the Central Coordination Unit and the Certification Authority for the EU Structural and Cohesion Funds, as well as the deputy ministers of agriculture and food responsible for the Agriculture State Fund (Paying Agency and SAPARD Agency) and the Fisheries and Aquaculture Program.

The Council will meet at the level of ministers and deputy ministers and heads of directorates once a month, unless extra meetings are needed. The following ministers will be Council members: of finance, of the economy and energy, of regional development and public works, of labor and social policy, of transport, of the environment and water, of state administration and administrative reform, of agriculture and food, and of the interior.

The Council chairman may propose that other ministers and senior officials may participate in the meetings, including representatives of the economic and social partners and representative NGOs.

The deputy ministers on the Council are those responsible for the executive agencies for the Phare Program, the SAPARD Agency, the managing authorities of the Cohesion Fund under Regulation 1164/94, the managing authorities of the operational programs, the Central Coordination Unit and the Certification Authority, the deputy ministers of the interior and of foreign affairs responsible for the Schengen instrument, the Return Fund, the European Integration Fund, the European Refugee Fund and the External Borders Fund, and the heads of the departments' directorates and chief directorates.

Source: BTA