The specialized prosecutor’s office has initiated pre-trial proceedings for illegal receipt of funds from European Union mainly under measures administered by the State Fund “Agriculture”.

In the course of the investigation against an organized crime group on February 11, a total of 18 searches and seizures were carried out in various properties on the territory of Sofia and the municipalities of Godech and Kostinbrod, the press center of the prosecutor’s office announced.

Investigations were carried out in office premises in the municipality of Godech, as well as in the regional food safety agency (BFSA) – Sofia district. Numerous papers, documents and wads of cash were seized during the searches. Several people are detained for a period of 24 hours, it is said in the laconic report.

Investigation is going on

Earlier, unofficial information came that the mayor of Godech, Radoslav Assenov, had been taken for questioning to the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office on Thursday morning.

According to a source of 24 Chasa daily from the town near the Serbian border, the state prosecution and Anti-Corruption Commission for Illegal Assets Forfeiture are working on a case involving subsidies for a livestock farm, with which the mayor has a connection.This is a story from a few years ago.

The farm was inspected by the BFSA-Sofia district, where prosecutors started a probe yesterday. According to the locals, the director Dr. Leonid Lavchev is on close terms with the mayor Assenov and some time ago he even was a jury in a horse pageant in the municipality.

The criminal network defrauded Dutch tax authorities of an estimated €9 million

On 10 February, the Criminal Asset Bureau of the Irish National Police (An Garda Síochána) took action against a criminal gang suspected of large-scale money laundering. 

Fund transfers in excess of €4 million were identified from other jurisdictions to Irish bank accounts linked to members of this criminal network. The gang is believed to have made this money from illegal activity across Europe. 

The search operation in the cities of Tipperary and Kilkenny involved searches of 4 residential properties and 1 business premises, as a result of which €100 000 in cash and a car worth €75 000 were seized. A total of 16 bank accounts linked to members of the crime group were also frozen. The accounts contained cumulative funds of €540,000. 

Such results were made possible thanks to the model of non-conviction based forfeiture operated by the Irish Criminal Assets Bureau.

International Asset Recovery

International cooperation is essential for the successful recovery of assets hidden abroad. Europol’s position at the heart of the European security architecture helps facilitate such a mechanism.

In this case, Europol’s European Financial and Economic Crime Centre (EFECC) pieced together the intelligence provided by different countries on this one same criminal network and put all the involved countries around one table. 

The partners have since worked closely together on this case to uncover the actual magnitude of the criminal activity of this gang and to establish a joint strategy for the final phase of the investigation.  

Raiffeisenverband Salzburg (RVS) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) are intensifying their cooperation. Due to high demand for loans, RVS has signed a further €30 million financing agreement with the EU bank. This is the first tranche of an overall sum of €50 million for which RVS has secured the EIB’s agreement. To provide clear impetus for investment in the region, the new loan volume will also be doubled by Raiffeisen Salzburg to €100 million in the coming years.

The two banks have been working closely since 2017. Over this period, RVS has been cooperating with the EU bank directly to support companies in the region by granting loans on favourable terms. Projects that meet EIB criteria enjoy low interest rates. Since 2017, the EIB has granted promotional loans totalling €100 million to selected projects as part of this cooperation, with RVS doubling this amount to €200 million.

The scope of the EIB’s refinancing is broad: in previous years, the low-interest EU loans went towards supporting new expansion and modernisation projects conducted by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the state of Salzburg and neighbouring regions, with a focus on environmentally friendly investment. These initiatives included renovation projects at tourism companies, which have reduced their CO₂ emissions significantly thanks to new heating and ventilation technologies, thermal insulation and/or the use of energy management systems. The funds were also used for switching to energy-efficient production machinery and processes as well as constructing low-energy buildings for commercial use.

These newly signed agreements place even greater emphasis on climate action, with a particular focus on innovation. These favourable refinancing packages are primarily intended for companies operating in innovative fields and investments in pioneering products and processes.

Salzburg-based businesses and their future are particularly important to RVS General Manager Dr Heinz Konrad: “Small and medium-sized enterprises in particular form the backbone of the local economy. They create jobs and provide young people with training, thereby safeguarding the success of future generations. Even amid today’s economic challenges, we intend to keep looking to the future and ensure that increasingly important issues such as sustainability and business continuity do not fall by the wayside. Thanks to this refinancing, we can support our clients’ projects by granting medium- and long-term loans with favourable terms, while keeping red tape to a minimum.”

EIB Vice-President Thomas Östros added: “In the current difficult economic climate, marked by the COVID pandemic, we must ensure that access to fresh capital is not blocked. Against this backdrop, I am particularly pleased that we are stepping up our cooperation with Raiffeisenverband Salzburg, especially since the new funds have an even greater focus on financing climate action. Tackling the crisis and climate change are absolute priorities for the EIB, the EU bank.”

Background information:

Raiffeisenverband Salzburg

Raiffeisenverband Salzburg (RVS) is on the one hand a regional universal bank and on the other hand the regional headquarters of the Raiffeisen banking group Salzburg and is, together with the 41 independent Raiffeisen banks and a total of 119 bank branches, the largest banking group in the state of Salzburg. Since May 1st, 2020 Mr. Heinz Konrad is CEO of the Raiffeisenverband Salzburg.

The euro area economy is forecast to recover at a slower-than-expected pace this year, as the resurgence of the Covid-19 infections, together with more contagious variants of the virus forced many economies to tighten containment measures, the European Commission said in its interim Winter forecast, released Thursday.

The currency bloc is expected to grow 3.8 percent this year, instead of 4.2 percent projected in the autumn forecast. However, the outlook for 2022 was lifted to 3.8 percent from 3 percent citing the start of mass vaccination campaigns.

“Today’s forecast provides real hope at a time of great uncertainty for us all,” Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice-President for an Economy that Works for People said. “The solid expected pick-up of growth in the second half of this year shows very clearly that we are turning the corner in overcoming this crisis.”

The EU cautioned that projections are subject to significant uncertainty and elevated risks, predominately linked to the evolution of the pandemic and the success of vaccination campaigns.

The economic impact of the pandemic remains uneven across member states and the speed of the recovery was also projected to vary significantly.

Germany’s real GDP is forecast to rebound by 3.2 percent in 2021, returning to its pre-crisis level at the turn of the year. In 2022, the economy should continue growing by 3.1 percent, the EU said.

France’s real GDP is projected to expand by 5.5 percent in 2021 and by 4.4 percent in 2022.

Italy’s GDP is projected to expand by 3.4 percent in 2021. Real output is set to grow at almost similar pace in 2022 on the back of the momentum gained in the second half of this year on the back of continued recovery of the services sector.

Spain‘s GDP is forecast to grow by 5.6 percent in 2021. In 2022, driven by the tourism recovery, the region is set to expand 5.3 percent.

The European Union is forecast to rebound 3.7 percent this year, before advancing 3.9 percent in 2022.

Inflation in the euro area is expected to be slightly higher in 2021 compared to last autumn, but to remain subdued despite a temporary boost from base effects, EU said.

Inflation is seen at 1.4 percent in 2021, up from the prior forecast of 1.1 percent. As supply side adjusts and base effects taper out, inflation is projected to moderate to 1.3 percent in 2022, which was unchanged from the prior forecast.

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UK Brexit minister Michael Gove and European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic are meeting in London later Thursday to try to smooth out the problems, but few expect a quick resolution.

LONDON: Breaking up is proving hard to do for Britain and the European Union, whose divorce deal is in choppy waters just six weeks after the UK made its economic split from the bloc.

UK Brexit minister Michael Gove and European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic are meeting in London later Thursday to try to smooth out the problems, but few expect a quick resolution.

The turbulence centers on Northern Ireland, whose complex status has been one of the trickiest issues in the UK-EU divorce.

Michel Barnier, the bloc’s chief negotiator during years of Brexit talks, said both sides “must be conscious of their responsibilities” to Northern Ireland.

“The situation has never been easy in Ireland and everything is complex,” he said at a European business summit on Thursday.

“I recommend personally to everybody on both sides to be responsible and take care.” Since Britain left the EU’s economic structures on Dec.31, goods moving between the UK and the bloc have faced customs and veterinary checks under the terms of a new trade deal.

Checks have also been imposed on some British goods going to Northern Ireland because it shares a border with EU member-state Ireland.

Those checks have unsettled the delicate political balance in Northern Ireland, a part of the U.K. where some people identify as British and some as Irish.

The new measures are designed to prevent a hard border being imposed between Ireland and the north — something that could undermine the Irish peace process — but they are opposed by pro-British Unionists, who say they drive a wedge between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

Northern Ireland authorities halted veterinary checks and withdrew border staff from ports for several days this month after threatening graffiti appeared referring to port workers as targets.

The sensitivity of Northern Ireland’s status was underscored earlier this month when the EU briefly threatened to ban shipments of coronavirus vaccines to Northern Ireland amid a dispute with Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca.

That would have drawn a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland — exactly what the Brexit trade deal was crafted to avoid.

The EU quickly dropped the idea after British, Irish and Northern Ireland politicians expressed alarm.

But Britain has seized on the gaffe to accuse the EU of undermining the Brexit divorce agreement.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman, Jamie Davies, said the bloc’s move had caused “shock and anger” in Northern Ireland.

He said there was a need “to take urgent steps to restore confidence as a result.” The U.K. wants the EU to take a more light-touch approach to border checks, which have already led to shortages and delays in getting some goods to Northern Ireland.

Britain has asked for short-term grace periods that have delayed imposition of full red tape on supermarket supplies, parcels and medicines extended until at least 2023.

The EU says some economic friction is the inevitable outcome of Britain’s decision to leave the bloc’s single market and customs union, and insists the Northern Ireland Protocol can’t be significantly renegotiated.

In a letter to Gove before their meeting, Sefcovic pointed to “shortcomings” in Britain’s implementation of the agreement, saying border facilities were fully up and running and only limited checks were taking place.

Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin urged both sides to “dial down the rhetoric.” “There are bound to be teething issues and teething problems,” he told Irish broadcaster RTE.