Bulgaria: Caretaker Cabinet Decided to Give Another Brush to Recovery and Resilience Plan

The caretaker government decided to further detail about 50% of the existing projects under the Recovery Plan and to register new significant projects and reforms, announced Deputy Prime Minister in charge of European Funds Management Atanas Pekanov during the government's briefing on Tuesday, June 15.

More than 30 new projects have been submitted, as well as several proposal for reforms. Of the 30 new proposals, most are good, but unfortunately not all meet the strict criteria of the European Commission, Pekanov pointed out. Currently, ten of the new projects are being considered ,"which meet the objectives and coincide with the public interest", explained the Deputy Prime Minister.

In his words, the funds under the Recovery and Sustainability Plan are not at risk. Our country will receive 13% refinancing from the Recovery and Sustainability Facility – that's about 1.6 billion euros coming most likely this year.

"We acknowledge the lack of transparent and in-depth public dialogue in the last year on how the Mechanism works and what is the role of the state, allowing various delusions to spread," Pekanov said.

He added: "Soon after the Plan is tabled, I hope within our cabinet’s tenure, the funds allocated will flow into the Bulgarian economy and the big question is not whether they will come in August or October, but what we will invest them in and how they will help make our country safer and more prosperous."

In Pekanov's words, there should be no compromise on the quality of the plan. The delay in submitting it to Brussels is due to two factors: the political decision of the previous government not to hand over the Plan, and even to leave to the caretaker cabinet technical work on it, as well as our desire to make it better and more ambitious.

Since the caretaker government did not approve the Plan, it restarted the workgroup and began to collect new projects.

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