European Commission Endorses Bulgaria’s Recovery and Resilience Plan
The European Commission has endorsed Bulgaria's EUR 6.3 billion (in grants) recovery and resilience plan under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). The financing would serve as a help for the country's road to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bulgaria's recovery and resilience plan focuses on embracing the green and digital transitions, and strengthening its economic and social resilience by prioritizing growth potential and job creation.
The plan devotes 59% of the total allocation to measures that support climate objectives, such as promoting decarbonization of the energy sector, increasing power generation from renewables, building up large electricity storage capacities, cutting greenhouse gas emissions of the power sector, and setting out a framework for coal phase-out. Promotion of sustainable transport, water management and biodiversity conservation are also covered by the plan. Another 26% are devoted to digital transition and investments in digital connectivity and skills, digitalization of public administration, businesses, and the transport and energy sectors.
In addition, the plan contains anti-corruption measures aimed at ensuring accountability and criminal liability of the General Prosecutor, strengthened anti-corruption institutions and increased transparency and competition in public procurement.
As a next step, the Council has 4 weeks to adopt the Commission's proposal. Once the proposal is adopted, the Commission will authorize payment disbursements based on the plan's targets achievement.
The full text of the press release, issued on 7 April 2022, is available here (in English).
Note: The RRF is the key instrument of the NextGenerationEU, a recovery plan which will provide up to EUR 800 billion to support investments and reforms across the European Union.