European Commission endorses a positive preliminary assessment of Bulgaria’s request for €1.37 billion

The European Commission has today endorsed a positive preliminary assessment of Bulgaria’s payment request for €1.37 billion of grants under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the key instrument at the heart of NextGenerationEU.

On 31 August 2022, Bulgaria submitted to the Commission a payment request based on the achievement of the 22 milestones and targets selected in the Council Implementing Decision for the first instalment. They cover reforms and investments in the areas of education, smart industry, climate neutrality, digital connectivity, sustainable transport and road safety, justice, anti-money laundering, social inclusion, healthcare, and the audit and control system linked to the Recovery and Resilience Facility.

With their request, the Bulgarian authorities provided detailed and comprehensive evidence demonstrating the fulfilment of the 22 milestones and targets. The Commission has thoroughly assessed this information before presenting its positive preliminary assessment of the payment request.

The Bulgarian recovery and resilience plan includes a wide range of investment and reform measures in twelve thematic components. The plan will be supported by €5.7 billion in grants.

Payments under the RRF are performance-based and contingent on Member States implementing the investments and reforms outlined in their respective recovery and resilience plans.

Next steps

The Commission has now sent its positive preliminary assessment of Bulgaria’s fulfilment of the milestones and targets required for this payment to the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC), asking for its opinion. The EFC’s opinion, to be delivered within a maximum of four weeks, should be taken into account in the Commission’s assessment. Following the EFC’s opinion, the Commission will adopt the final decision on the disbursement of the financial contribution, in accordance with the examination procedure, through a comitology committee. Following the adoption of the decision by the Commission, the disbursement to Bulgaria can take place.

The Commission will assess further payment requests by Bulgaria based on the fulfilment of the milestones and targets outlined in the Council Implementing Decision, reflecting progress on the implementation of the investments and reforms.

The amounts disbursed to the Member States are published in the Recovery and Resilience Scoreboard, which shows progress of the implementation of the national recovery and resilience plans.