Bulgaria will insist on consolidation of payments under the RRP

Bulgaria will ask the European Commission to consolidate the payments under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) and reduce their number. This became clear from a statement by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Innovation and Growth Tomislav Donchev, who commented on the issue after the Commission approved the revised Plan for our country on Wednesday. The Commission approved the revised Plan for our country.

A more ambitious agenda

From now on, we will follow a much more ambitious agenda, as there are nine payments under the Recovery Plan. The total amount is close to BGN 12 billion. We have currently received BGN 3 billion. This means that BGN 9 billion remain,” Donchev announced.

He made it clear that there is an idea to reduce the number of payments in order to optimize the technical work, but additional funds from the EC are expected by the end of the year.

He added that investments are being reviewed, with those that cannot be implemented being withdrawn and additional funding secured for those that are progressing quickly.

The plan for this year is to receive at least €1.5 billion in additional funding from the EC to avoid a liquidity crisis, because the projects under the plan are progressing. In just five months, we have paid out nearly BGN 1.2 billion in additional funds. The message to everyone is to work and deliver, because the deadline is in a year and a month,” explained the Minister of Innovation.

Only one step remains

Tomislav Donchev said that only one step remains before the second payment of €1.5 billion: the adoption of the rules for the Anti-Corruption Commission.

Yesterday, the Minister of Justice sent the rules, which have been approved by the EC, in a letter to the parliamentary committee on Prevention and Counteracting Corruption,” announced GERB MP Raya Nazarian.

She added that on Thursday, a joint meeting of the Legal Affairs Committee and the Anti-Corruption Commission is scheduled to take place to synchronize the current law and the Constitutional Court's decision on the majority so that it can be finally adopted next week.

It is expected that next Thursday, the Anti-Corruption Commission will adopt the rules that are already available to MPs. The following Friday, they will be adopted in the chamber and published, thus completing the Plan,” Nazaryan explained.

Translated with DeepL.