Most of the EU funding for the Member States is done through the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund, which constitute a considerable part of the EU budget. Their goals are to assist the most economically backwards regions of the EU and to promote EU integration through cohesion. The financing for the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund within the 27 EU countries is granted through the national and regional authorities of the Member States.The expected impact of these funds is an increase in the GDP of the country to 51% of the EU average and an increase in the employment rate to 64% (56% in 2005). For 2007-2009, the structural instruments contributed for over 6% of the national GDP.

Besides the Structural and the Cohesion Funds, which are parts of the EU Cohesion and Regional Policy and are specifically allocated to each Member State, there are horizontal programmes allocated to the whole Community. They cover big areas like Research and Development and Competitiveness and Innovation and are categorized as European Community Programmes. Other opportunities that can be explored are in areas related to Culture, Media, Entrepreneurship, Professional Qualification, Mobility Programmes, and others.

The Seventh Framework Programme for Research has four main objectives, which are canalized through four programmes - Cooperation, Ideas, People, and Capacities. The funding available under the programme for the period 2007-2013 is almost 55 billion EUR for the whole EU. The focus points of the programme for research are transnational cooperation in projects and networks, frontier research, training and development of researchers, and support of research and innovation capacities. Possible beneficiaries include third countries’ organizations and researchers and companies intending to innovate. The programme in Bulgaria is managed by the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science.

The funding available to Member States under the CIP for the period 2007-2013 is nearly 3.6 billion EUR. Its three operational programmes are Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme, Information Communication Policy support Programme, and Intelligent Energy Europe. The objectives of the programme are the increase of competitiveness of businesses, especially of small and medium size enterprises (SMEs), fostering of innovation, promoting an Information Society, and boosting of energy efficiency and renewable energy resources. The programme in Bulgaria is managed by the State Agency for Information Technology and Communications.

The Lifelong Learning Programme has 6 programmes - Comenius, Erasmus, Leonardo da Vinci, Grundtvig, Horizontal Programmes, and Jean Monnet. The funding for the whole EU for 2007-2013 is 6.97 billion EUR. The Programme's aim is to support mobility, bilateral and multilateral partnerships, multilateral projects and networks, and unilateral and national projects in education and training. The programme in Bulgaria is managed by the Human Resource Development Centre.