16.12.2022

BULGARIA RECEIVED ALMOST 1.4 BILLION EUROS UNDER THE RECOVERY AND RESILIENCE PLAN

The European Commission today made the first payment of grants in the amount of 1.37 billion euros to Bulgaria, after Bulgaria met 22 key milestones and targets related to the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. They cover important first steps in reforms and investments to decarbonise the energy sector, the large-scale deployment of digital infrastructure, reforming the judiciary, strengthening the anti-money laundering framework, digitizing the public sector, improving compliance and the coverage of the Minimum income. Measures are also included to ensure that the audit and control system for the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility meets European standards.

Context

As for all other EU member states, payments under the Recovery and Resilience Facility - the main instrument of NextGenerationEU - are performance-based and dependent on the implementation of the investments and reforms in Bulgaria described in its Recovery and Resilience Plan.

On 31 August 2022, Bulgaria submitted to the Commission a first request for the payment of EUR 1.37 billion under the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, covering 22 key milestones and targets. On November 7, 2022, the Commission adopted a positive preliminary assessment of Bulgaria's request for payment. The positive opinion of the Economic and Financial Committee of the Council on this payment request paved the way for the Commission to take a final decision on the disbursement of the funds today.

Overall, Bulgaria's recovery and resilience plan will be financed with 5.69 billion euros in grants. The amounts of payments made to Member States are published in the Recovery and Resilience Indicator Set, which shows the progress made in implementing the Recovery and Resilience Facility as a whole and the individual Recovery and Resilience Plans.