26.02.2020 The purpose of BDB is to increase the projects implemented under the Connecting Europe Facility

The purpose of the Bulgarian Development Bank is to increase the number of projects implemented under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) in Bulgaria. This was stated by the Bank’s Strategic Development Advisor Sophia Kassidova in a TV interview. The Facility is one of the financial instruments through which the EU implements its economic development and cohesion policies in the Member States. It enables companies to apply with ready-made projects for modernization of railway infrastructure management systems or for alternative fuels and more specifically biomass fuels that are relevant to the region where the activity is carried out.
‘The Connecting Europe Facility will also have an important place in the EU’s funding instruments in the next programming period. To improve its use, the European Commission has sent us a request for proposals that BDB, as one of the partner banks, will provide. As you know, its main purpose is to bring regions closer together and it depends entirely on us what benefits we can derive from it. Such instruments will be increasingly used and so we need to increase our financial culture, to learn to structure well-founded projects’, Sophia Kassidova added.
In order to receive funding for a project, it must have sound economic and financial justification and clearly defined benefits for the environment and society. The Facility provides up to 20 % grant. According to Sophia Kassidova, BDB has the opportunity to consult on the project structuring as well as to provide the rest of the finds needed for the investment.
Since 2014, when Bulgaria started using this financial instrument, up to now EUR 417 million have been used by the Facility, most of which have been invested in port and railway infrastructure.
‘As a national development bank, BDB should take its place in supporting the implementation of “green’ projects”, Sophia Kassidova said. She recalled the words of the CEO of the financial institution Stoyan Mavrodiev that the goal of BDB is 15 % of the credit portfolio to be directed towards energy-