Deputy PM Pekanov: EC Approves First Payment of BGN 2.7 Bln under Recovery and Resilience Plan

Jerusalem, 7 November, 2022 (TPS) -- SOFIA, 07.11.2022 14:16 (BTA)
The European Commission has just approved the first payment of BGN 2.7 billion ($1.4 billion) under Bulgaria’s Recovery and Resilience Plan, Deputy Prime Minister in charge of EU funds management Atanas Pekanov told an extraordinary briefing on Monday. It is devoted to the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.

“A few minutes ago the European Commission said it had endorsed a positive preliminary assessment of Bulgaria’s payment request for BGN 2.7 billion of grants under the Recovery and Resilience Facility,” Pekanov said.

He said the caretaker cabinet had spared no effort to achieve the Commission’s positive assessment and thanked all the institutions and experts involved.

“This is an important step for Bulgaria. It will stop speculation that we will never get money, that we were desperately late or that we were failing. On the contrary, it took some countries much longer to get a positive assessment of their payment requests,” Pekanov said.

He recalled that Bulgaria is to get some BGN 12 billion under its Recovery and Resilience Plan, which includes various investment projects and reforms.

“Now we should all concentrate our efforts on the second payment,” said the Deputy Prime Minister. He recalled that Parliament must adopt amendments to the Energy Poverty Act linked to the Recovery and Resilience Plan. That law must include a definition of energy poverty along with other amendments.

Bulgaria has committed to reducing by at least 40% the harmful emissions from its coal-fired power plants by 2026, but this is not linked to the second payment under the Plan, Pekanov said.