site.btaMedia Review: February 27

RECOVERY AND RESILIENCE PLAN

Bulgaria still stands a chance to salvage part of the funds under its Recovery and Resilience Plan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Communications Grozdan Karadjov said on Nova TV’s morning show.

“This is a judgement made not only by us, but also by the European Commission, whose representatives visited us last week. Seven investments have no chance of happening and 15 are in a very critical phase. For the rest, the risk will be definitively overcome. Thus, the Recovery Plan has been severely damaged, but not totally lost. Its total value is EUR 6 billion or BGN 12 billion. We have received only the first payment from it, of which we have invested only half. Why should there be a next payment when in the last 3.5-4 years you have not even made good on 50% of what you have already been paid?” Karadjov said, commenting on the question whether it is possible that some of the projects financed under the Recovery Plan will be left unfunded.

"For the EC, the process with the changes in the legislation that we have committed to is moving in the way it has been going before. We have passed a lot of the laws. The manipulation that has been running since yesterday is that if we pass the Personal Insolvency bill and get the Anti-Corruption Commission elected - the money will flow. That is a requirement, but there are countless other requirements for failed tenders and reforms that have not happened. How can we catch up?" Karadjov asked.

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On the same topic in Nova’s studio, Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria deputy floor leader Bozhidar Bozhanov said, “The second payment under the Recovery and Resilience Plan, for which we had six months to show to the European Commission that we have implemented the reforms, depends on several laws. These had to be passed by Parliament - the Personal Insolvency bill, the Whistleblower Protection bill, and the rules for the election of the Anti-Corruption Commission. These are things that have been tabled by us and not passed. GERB-UDF has systematically refused.

“According to Boyko Borissov's party [GERB], the texts of the submitted draft laws were bad. This is not true of the Whistleblower bill, it transposes a directive and the wording there is entirely technical," he retorted.

Bozhanov said the delays in the last four years were due to caretaker cabinets and political instability. "It is not only the fault of GERB-UDF for not passing certain laws, but the overall situation where the administration – when it sees the changing of the guard – idles and waits for guidance on what to do with the projects and measures," the MP added.

"Under the caretaker cabinets, including Glavchev’s, which we can safely associate with GERB-UDF and MRF - New Beginning, a huge backlog has accumulated," Bozhanov said.

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Ivan Ivanov, Minister of Regional Development and Public Works, said on BNT’s morning show that the loss of funds under the Recovery Plan is not due to unimplemented reforms, but to criminal inaction. 

“We are 15 months late on all the deadlines for the renovation of residential buildings. The first contracts with municipalities as final recipients were signed at the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025. The deadline for implementation, for reporting on these renovation projects, is June 30, 2026. We are doing our best to preserve whatever can be preserved, whatever can be saved. By communicating with the municipalities, we will be able to select the contractors faster, because we have sent a letter to the municipalities to have the contractors selected by June 30 and to have the remediation completed within one year. Under the first part of this programme, where 100% of the grants are paid, we have BGN 1.123 billion, and so far we have information that 89 construction contracts have been signed for BGN 100 million. Do you understand what the delay is? The good news is that we have a decision and an understanding in the government that all those that will be dropped will be covered by funds from the State budget, and such funds are earmarked for 2025. There have been criminal omissions - simply nothing has been done in 2023 and 2024 by caretaker and regular governments," Ivanov said.

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“Bulgarian foreign policy has not been adequate and clear for 30 years,” said Galin Durev, MP from BSP – United Left on the air of NOVA NEWS. "The ministers in their departments have made a clear account and have warned that the money under the Recovery Plan is in danger of being lost under the management of [former finance minister] Mr. Assen Vassilev. The administrative procedures to ensure adequate use of these funds have not been carried out over the years," Durev pointed out. 

The MP also addressed the issue of Bulgaria's accession to the euro area. "Even the expert opinions on this topic are different. I would gladly wait to see the response to the letter they have sent to the European institutions for a Convergence report. I have shared my position many times - we are not ready for this. Unfortunately, both in society and within the BSP as a party, the two opinions are more or less equally mixed, and I hope that we do not make a hasty decision. The BSP will act constructively. We have no choice but to accept the euro, the question is when," Durev said.  He pointed out that Bulgaria is not ready for the eurozone because – if nothing else – the issue is being used to create public tensions, which leads to extreme distortions of the debate.

POLITICS

The day in Parliament began with a hearing of Minister of Energy Zhecho Stankov on the veracity of information in the media about the suspension of the work of the Maritsa East 3 Thermal Power Plant until March 31, 2025 and the dismissal of employees working there, the national radio reported. The question came from MP of MECh Krasimir Manov. 

Information will also be given on the Energy Ministry's position on increasing the state's share of the share capital in the plant, which is currently 27%, and what measures the Energy Ministry will take to preserve the jobs of employees.

Parliament’s presiding body will decide whether to discuss a draft declaration condemning the systematic aggressive actions of the Vazrazhdane party as an attempt to undermine the democratic rule of law in Bulgaria and divert it from its European path. 

The sponsors of the draft declaration are MPs from the Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria.

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The Constitutional Court ordered the Central Election Commission (CEC) to recalculate the results of the last parliamentary elections held on 27 October, BNT and other media outlets report.

The CEC has to establish at national level the total number of ballot papers found in the ballot boxes, as well as the number of valid and invalid votes. The experts' inspection, which was ordered by the court, found discrepancies between the actual and the reported result in 46.75% of the polling stations inspected.

This means carrying out a complete recount, resetting the 4% threshold, recalculating the distribution of seats in the 51st National Assembly, and indicating, in the light of the results obtained, whether changes are required in the staffing of the National Assembly.

The CEC will discuss the CC's decision at its meeting today. The subject of the CC's inspection were the election papers of 2,204 polling stations, which represents about 17% of the nearly 12,000 polling stations in operation at the 27 October elections last year.

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As a follow-up, Dnevnik reports that GERB leader Boyko Borissov outlined two scenarios for the future of the cabinet of PM Rosen Zhelyazkov, if after the recalculation of the seats in Parliament it turns out that the ruling majority is no longer a majority. He said the first option was for the government to continue but as a minority government. However, he also allowed for a second scenario - renewed negotiations with Democratic Bulgaria.

In both hypotheses Borissov draws the same horizon for work - until Bulgaria's accession to the eurozone, which he believes will happen on January 1, 2026.

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For the second day in a row, the majority of MPs left the plenary hall during a speech by a representative of Vazrazhdane, Trud and other outlets report.

Parliament Chair Nataliya Kiselova gave the floor to Iskra Mihaylova from Vazrazhdane, who made a speech from the rostrum of the National Assembly.

Mihaylova started by saying that last Saturday thousands of citizens came out and protested in front of the BNB in record low temperatures.

"They clearly told you that they want a referendum to be held to preserve the Bulgarian lev," Mihaylova noted. This statement caused violent reactions in the National Assembly and all MPs, except for Vazrazhdane and MECh left the plenary hall.

ECONOMY

“Batteries are here, and the path for solar energy development is onward and upward,” said Emil Shopov, CEO of leading solar energy company Sunterra RE, at the Energy Summit 2025 conference in Sofia, 24 Chasa reports.

He was a speaker on a panel on a carbon-free future and the role of batteries in the energy system, together with companies such as SUNOTEC and Sungrow,

Without battery energy storage systems (BESS), solar power generation brings challenges to power system stability and high balancing costs for manufacturers. BESS enable the "smoothing" of the production profile of PV plants, shifting power from midday to high consumption periods, achieving better prices for the consumer, and reducing grid disturbances, Shopov explained.

Despite the battery boom, regulations in Bulgaria and Europe still lag behind. Energy storage facilities should be separated and treated as a separate asset class, corresponding to its technical characteristics and features. This will help both market players and system operators, he said.

Since the end of last year, the company has been licensed to trade electricity under the Sunterra Energy Trading brand. It is now actively offering electricity from renewable sources and is developing as a leading company in this sector.

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The organizers of the boycott against the big grocery chains have scheduled a third protest action to take place today, Nova TV reports. Along with it, a boycott of banks will be announced because of high fees, with a demand that Parliament impose a cap. Last year, the net profit of financial institutions from the fees in question alone was BGN 1.6 billion.

HEALTH

A cardiovascular screening programme for Sofia residents will be discussed by the Sofia City Council, 24 Chasa reports. Nearly 6,000 patients are expected to be covered by the programme, which will involve 85 cardiologists with 115 electrocardiogram machines and 43 echocardiographs in a total of 26 municipal medical institutions. The examinations will be carried out for four hours a day, 23 days a year, and about 2,130 patients can be examined in one hospital, the authors of the report said. They stress that the examinations will be free of charge and will be in two stages. The first starts on World Hypertension Day, May 17, and will last until May 31. The second stage will start on September 29, World Heart Day, and end on October 15.