The government confirmed: Funds under the Recovery Plan are being reduced by over BGN 1 billion
Funds for Romania and France have been reduced by around 2 billion euros
Source: 3eNews, archive
The Ministry of Finance yesterday confirmed the information that the Bulgarian Recovery Plan will be reduced by the amount of 578 million euros. The information was released a day ago, but today the resigned Bulgarian government reacted to the news. And he blamed the previous rulers for the loss of over BGN 1 billion under the PVA.
"Mr. Boyko Borisov stated: "This government and the caretaker government have literally failed the Recovery Plan and yesterday the EC reduced the total amount of grants with a correction of 578 million euros. Billions are lost due to incompetence and irresponsibility." The Ministry of Finance fully agrees with the definition of "incompetence and irresponsibility", but it refers to the government of мr. Boyko Borisov.
It was the government of Borisov 3 in February 2021 that supported and voted in the EU the obligation to reduce funds under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RSP) as part of the legal framework of the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, the MoF explains in its announcement.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the legal framework signed by Mr. Borisov's government included the decision to recalculate 30% of the total grant funding based on the actual economic growth in 2021. The data for this growth was finalized as of June 2022, on the basis of which the reduction was made for our country, because Bulgaria has better economic indicators than the EU average. The change in PVA funds is a result of better-than-expected economic growth for 2021. As the Bulgarian economy exceeded expectations for February 2021 growth, while other European economies performed below expectations and on the basis of the adopted at the beginning of 2021 d. legal framework funds were redirected to them between member states.
The recalculation affects all member states at the same time and does not refer only to Bulgaria. In 22 member states, the grant funding under the mechanism was reduced, and in 7 countries it was reduced by larger amounts than the Bulgarian one. Romania's and France's funds have been reduced by about 2 billion euros. Only 5 countries have increases.
The implementation of the Bulgarian Recovery Plan is underway and currently meets the agreed deadlines. The recalculation does not require changes to it at this stage.
In the last three months, the government has been actively raising at the European level the issue of compensating for the reduction in grant funds and is looking for opportunities to compensate with other European funding, including through new funding for the countries suffering the energy consequences of the war in Ukraine.