Minister of Innovation: Bulgaria on Track to Receive Second Recovery Plan Payment by End of 2025

Bulgaria now has a real opportunity to receive the second payment under the Recovery and Resilience Plan by the end of 2025, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Innovation and Growth Tomislav Donchev announced. Speaking at a briefing on the proposed amendments to the National Recovery and Resilience Plan and the draft REPowerEU chapter, Donchev stated that after three months of efforts and two months of negotiations with the European Commission, all prerequisites are in place for the country to resubmit its request and receive the funds this year.

At the end of March, the Bulgarian government removed eight projects from the plan, totaling BGN 1.02 billion. Donchev noted that the investment restructuring process will continue in the coming weeks, in line with an agreement with the European Commission to eliminate projects that cannot be completed by August 2026. Funding for eleven more projects will be reduced based on expert assessments showing they are unlikely to be fully implemented by the deadline.

Among the affected initiatives are the youth center program, whose budget drops from BGN 63 million to BGN 53 million, and the economic recovery through research program, which sees a significant reduction from BGN 278 million to BGN 1 million.

At the same time, Donchev said projects with strong progress will receive increased funding. New investments worth BGN 485 million are being added. For instance, the railway rolling stock project will see its total funding rise from BGN 665 million to BGN 952 million, while the project for Line 3 of the Sofia Metro will increase from BGN 217 million to BGN 282 million.