Bulgaria to get 29B euro EU funds in next multi-year budget, PM says
Bulgaria is set to receive 29 billion euro in EU funds during the bloc’s next budget period between 2021 and 2027, Prime Minister Boiko Borissov said on July 21, after the end of the European Council meeting in Brussels.
Leaders of the 27 EU member states reached an agreement on the seven-year budget and Next Generation EU coronavirus recovery package, worth a combined 1.8 trillion euro, in the early hours of Tuesday, after talks that went on for more than four days.
“The total amount of funding under the multi-annual financial framework and the Next Generation EU package for Bulgaria is almost 29 billion euro. This is more money in the new budget and we are one of the few countries that will receive more money, nearly one billion euro, compared to the current multi-annual financial framework,” Borissov said.
“That is despite the fact that the size of the next multi-annual financial framework is 62 billion euro lower than the current one,” he said, followed by a deadpan remark that it was for this reason that he “deserved” to face calls for his resignation.
Protests demanding the resignation of the Borissov government and of Prosecutor-General Ivan Geshev entered their 13th day on July 21, when a motion of no confidence was defeated in a National Assembly vote.
Borissov said that the EU funding under the cohesion policy and common agricultural policy, which he described as his “red line” during the EU summit talks, would not be cut.
The cohesion policy funding for Bulgaria would increase in the next budget period by 800 million euro to nine billion euro. “This is important for achieving our main goals, which is competitiveness, economic growth and employment,” Borissov said.
Additionally, Bulgaria will receive 200 million euro specifically towards investment in growth and jobs for its less developed regions. The money would go primarily to the northern and north-western parts of the country, Borissov said.
Bulgaria was also slated to receive 7.7 billion euro in grants under the Next Generation EU package, with the bulk of the money, about six billion euro, allocated under the recovery and resilience facility of the package, Borissov said.
(Boiko Borissov photo: government.bg)
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