Talks on the EU's next budget are hard, and Bulgaria backs the new results-based approach, deputy prime minister Atanas Pekanov told the Sofia Economic Forum.
The seventh forum, organised by the Delphi Economic Forum, is being held at the Hotel Balkan in Sofia. EU countries are still debating how big the next budget should be and what it should pay for.
Bulgaria has been one of the biggest recipients of EU fund money over the past 20 years. Pekanov says the funds are a traditional EU policy and they work well. Their aim is to bring the single market closer together, so that regions that start from a weaker position catch up with the rest.
For a long time the money went to infrastructure, health care, social policy, education and other areas. This let regions with less capacity catch up, the deputy prime minister said.
The change the European Commission made in 2021 with the new NextGenerationEU fund is a useful step, he said. The money no longer goes only to infrastructure and big projects, but to clearly defined goals.
Pekanov says Europe is not doing enough on artificial intelligence and must quickly invest much more than it has set aside so far. He says firms should be encouraged, and required to use more AI in their daily work.