FACT SHEET: FOREIGN OPERATIONS APPROPRIATED ASSISTANCE - BULGARIA

The U.S. Department of State's Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs issued the following fact sheet:

Foreign Operations Appropriated Assistance* Fiscal Year (FY) 2007: $11.06 Million (M) ($11.06M Other) Estimate FY 2008: $8.50M ($8.50M Other)**

Assistance Goals: The United States Government's (USG) overriding goal in Bulgaria is to help the country become a modern European democracy that is a strong partner of the U.S. both in the region and globally. Five strategic priorities govern U.S. foreign policy in Bulgaria: strengthening Bulgaria's capacity to contribute to international security; strengthening the rule of law; promoting an active Bulgarian role in NATO, the EU, and the region; building on opportunities for expanding trade; and increasing favorable views of the U.S. policies.

Areas of Focus (Foreign Operations Appropriated Assistance):

Peace and Security (PS): FY 2007: $11.06M, Est. FY 2008: $8.50M

* Provide the Bulgarian defense forces with field equipment, a personnel management system, an integrated logistics system, a modeling and simulation center, navigational aids, tactical vehicles, and training.

* Provide technical assistance to Bulgarian law enforcement officials on how to investigate and prosecute transnational organized crime and trafficking in persons more effectively.

* Deliver five workshops on financial investigation and financial profiling to 80 prosecutors and police. Seventy-six prosecutors, five judges, six officials from the Ministry of Finance and ten from the Ministry of Interior participated in two workshops on money laundering typologies, indirect methods of proof, and use of demonstrative evidence to present understandable pictures of complex financial crimes to the fact-finder.

Governing Justly and Democratically (GJD)

* Consolidate and accelerate internal governance and rule of law reforms and broaden the USG sustaining partnership with Bulgaria.

* Support the Center for the Study of Democracy as a means of promoting anti-corruption and justice system reforms in Bulgaria.

Economic Growth (EG)

* Develop credit authority guarantees to improve access to credit, particularly for competitive sectors of the economy.

Recent Successes:

* USG assistance helped the Financial Supervision Commission develop a risk-based supervision methodology and an actuarial certification program with nine applicants passing the first series of qualifying examinations.

* The new Bulgarian law for the judiciary increases transparency by mandating internet posting of all court decisions. An independent survey ranked USG-assisted courts 19% higher in the level of availability of information, 14% higher in the efficiency of trial proceedings, and 10% higher in the quality of administrative services than non-assisted courts. After just one year of work with the courts in the largest Bulgarian cities, the public's extremely negative perceptions about court operations dropped by 16% and their expectations of fairness increased by the same percentage.

* In FY 2007, Bulgarian authorities uncovered and neutralized 60 money laundering groups and obtained 12 money laundering convictions. The prosecution service reported 40 convictions of recognized organized crime figures and 24 prosecutions of government officials in the first half FY 2007.

*Division J of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 Omnibus Appropriations Act: Department of State Foreign Operations and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2008, including: SEED, Child Survival and Health (CSH), NADR, IMET and FMF

**Estimate from FY 2009 Congressional Budget Justification; Website: http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/101440.pdf.