site.btaParliament Ratifies EIB Lending Agreement

Parliament on Thursday adopted a bill on the ratification of a lending agreement between Bulgaria and the European Investment Bank (EIB) for the financing of the project "Bulgaria-EU Funds Co-financing 2021-2027 (SPL)".

The conclusion of the lending agreement is taken stock of in Bulgaria’s State Budget Act for 2024. 

It is envisaged that the EIB will provide Bulgaria with a structural programme loan of EUR 250 million. This is the third structural programme loan that the EIB has provided to support the Bulgarian government in the absorption of EU funds, having provided two structural programme loans totalling EUR 1 billion and EUR 200 million for the previous two programming periods covering 2007-2020. These provide the national co-financing for 11,377 projects in the fields of transport, environment, regional development and innovation and growth, according to the report of the parliamentary budgetary committee.

The new loan will provide the necessary financial resources to cover the national contribution to the projects implemented under the eligible programmes in the programming period 2021-2027. It covers the EU operation programmes for Transport Connectivity, Environment, Regional Development, Competitiveness and Innovation in Enterprises and Research, Innovation and Digitalization for Smart Transformation.

In addition to the specific loan amount of EUR 250 million that the EIB will grant to Bulgaria, the agreement also specifies the financing limit for the entire programming period, which is at EUR 1 billion. The loan will be disbursed in up to five tranches, with a minimum amount of EUR 50 million each, with a maximum term of 22 years, with up to 7 years grace period, at a fixed or floating interest rate.