The environment ministry plans to speed the implementation of five projects financed under the pre-accession ISPA programme, deputy environment minister Ivelina Vasileva said. The projects are valued at a total EUR 100mn and should be completed by the end of the year to receive full-scale financing from the EU pre-accession funds. The said projects were approved by EC in 2003 but the government signed the agreements in 2004 and the environment will ask extension of the deadlines based on this delay. The projects refer to water cycle improvement in four settlements and a landfill in the southern town of Kardzhali . The EC has already approved the extension of the deadlines until end-2011 for four investment and two technical aid projects of the environment ministry, valued at a total of EUR 205mn, which were approved by the Commission in 2004.