site.btaDeputy PM Donchev: Bulgaria Will Attempt to Save as Much of Second Payment under Recovery, Resilience Facility as Possible

Deputy Prime Minister and Innovation and Growth Minister Tomislav Donchev commented on the implementation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) at a briefing at the Council of Ministers on Wednesday. He said that Bulgaria has a six-month deadline until the end of August to restart the process of passing the laws in the National Assembly. "This will be done in an attempt to save as much of the second payment as possible," Donchev added. 

He said the reason some laws were not supported was not a lack of desire to fight corruption, but the fact that they needed editing. The Growth Minister argued that much more problematic are the reforms in the energy sector and in particular the liberalisation of the electricity market.

He pointed out that at the meeting with the European Commission it was revealed that the danger Bulgaria not to use all the NRRP funds was caused by the drastic delay in the implementation of the projects in the past four years. A project by project analysis should be done - those that are under implementation should be accelerated. Those that have not been started should be stopped because otherwise they will be left for funding from the 2026 budget, the Deputy Prime Minister said. He stressed that although he is ambitious, he is not convinced that what has not been done in four years can be done in a year and a half

The European Union funds are budget neutral, Donchev said in response to Continue the Change Co-Chair Assen Vassilev's comment that if the NRRP is abandoned, the Government should pull the state budget and redo it cardinally because the EU funds generate over BGN 10 billion.

 "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," Donchev said earlier on Wednesday.

"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.

At the second briefing of the day the Deputy Prime Minister stressed that the EC would not transfer the necessary funding because Bulgaria had not implemented all the reforms under the second payment. Donchev clarified that regarding the Whistleblowers Act, which the EC had criticised, he does not see "why we should limit ourselves with a deadline for whistleblowers".