site.btaBulgaria's Second Payment Request under Recovery, Resilience Facility to Be Refused, Deputy PM Donchev Says

The European Commission will refuse Bulgaria's second payment request under the Recovery and Resilience Facility, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Innovation and Growth Tomislav Donchev said regarding the implementation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP). "The second payment, which amounts to EUR 653 million, is not in question—it will certainly be denied to us, despite Bulgaria having fulfilled 85% of the reforms required for the second payment," he said.

"The European Commission uses a formula—if a reform is considered more important, its value increases, meaning there will be no payment under the second payment," Donchev stressed. He explained that so far, Bulgaria has received a first payment of BGN 2.677 billion. Donchev recalled that a few weeks ago, he had raised the situation surrounding the NRRP in the National Assembly.

The measures and reforms across the entire NRRP amount to a total of 321 until the ninth payment, of which Bulgaria has so far completed 115, Donchev added. According to him, in four years, Bulgaria has implemented only an insignificant portion of the reforms.