Delivery Mechanism of EU Rural Development Policy in Bulgaria

The aim of this article is to review the delivery mechanism of EU rural policy in Bulgaria, at all relevant institution levels, in order to identify those aspects that are working well and less well, and suggestions for desirable improvement. The focus is placed on the assessment of the practices involved, looking at problems and bottlenecks found within the delivery process from the point of view of key actor, in order to have a comprehensive picture of the multi-level governance system. The method of research consists of interviews following a questionnaire discussing the main elements of the delivery mechanism. Officials at national and EU level were interviewed, each of them responsible for the different aspects of the delivery mechanism. The article assembles their views by issue and by institutional level at which they operate. The article argues that implementation and monitoring are the weakest points in the EU rural policy in Bulgaria, while partnership principle can be valuable as a European reference.