Bulgaria receives 438.6M euro in second NextGenerationEU payment
The European Commission said on November 11 that it disbursed 438.6 million euro in grants to Bulgaria, the second payment under the Recovery and Resilience Facility of the bloc’s NextGenerationEU post-pandemic economic recovery plan.
In July, Bulgaria submitted a revised request for payment of 653 million euro, saying it met 59 milestones and targets covering 28 reforms and 12 investments outlined in the country’s Recovery and Resilience Plan submitted to the EC.
According to the EC, these reforms and investments included measures to enhance education, strengthen justice and procurement systems with transparency and whistleblower protections, liberalize the electricity market, address energy poverty, and develop energy storage capacities.
However, the Commission last month gave only partial approval to Bulgaria’s request, noting that it would withhold payment of funds related to the reform of the Anti-Corruption and Illegal Assets Forfeiture Commission.
The EC said that it would “consider the disbursement of the rest of the funds once Bulgaria has addressed this non-fulfilled milestone.” Bulgaria has six months to take action and address any remaining requirements, at which point the EC would release the funds.
“Bulgaria’s recovery and resilience plan is backed by 6.17 billion euro in grants. Today’s payment will raise the total funds disbursed to 29.5 per cent of the plan’s allocated amount, with 38.2 per cent of Bulgaria’s outlined milestones and targets being achieved,” the Commission said.
(Photo: government.bg)
Please support independent journalism by clicking on the button below. For as little as three euro a month or the equivalent in other currencies, you can support The Sofia Globe via patreon.com and get access to exclusive subscriber-only content:
